My wife and I were talking about this last night, we don’t have one but I was wondering how is this really different that Hey Siri? I mean as an example last night I just said Hey Siri, play music and my iPad started to play my music. I ask Siri to set timers when I am cooking, ask for weather updates, etc.
I like the lights ides from a prior poster but other than that, not sure I get what more I can do with an Echo versus just using Siri.
Have you seen this SNL skit?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvT_gqs5ETk
I rarely use Siri - I don’t have my phone tethered to me at all times and I think it has to be with you, or really close? Alexa hears us from the other room.
I am setting up routines on Alexa and that seems pretty useful - not sure Siri can string a bunch of stuff together?
Like, when I tell it to start my day, it says “good morning sunshine,” tells me the weather and starts “The Daily” podcast and also NPR news. I wish I could add my calendar info into that routine but that doesn’t seem possible. I have to ask it a question about what’s on my calendar.
We’ve trained it to recognize the people in the house. If I could just get my husband to stop asking for horrifically obscure music from the 60s - close to my least favorite musical period - I’d be happy…
I loved “Alexa, is there a Santa Claus?”
“Siri—is there a Santa Claus?”
Siri: Well, those cookies don’t eat themselves.
(And thanks for the laugh, @doschicos)
@calmom The first time we ordered something via Alexa, we got a $10 credit from Amazon. So, it. Can be worth not just putting things in your cart one time.
Alexa on Santa Claus: “I’ve heard a lot about him, but I’ve never met him personally. If I ever do meet him, I’ll tell him you said hi.”
We have a Dot upstairs and will often ask it to play music at bedtime with a sleep timer. We also use it to set the alarm for the next morning.
We got my parents one last Christmas and they have it programmed to give them the local weather each morning, followed by the weather at their grandchildren’s OOS colleges, which is a little wacky but also kind of sweet.
I get the “please” thing, @bjkmom, although usually it is H telling her “Thank you.”
I have one that was given to my parents to “train” because they got frustrated with it after the unlimited music trial ran out.
I linked Pandora to it because i don’t want to pay for unlimited Amazon music. So I can say “Alexa play Pandora bluegrass” and it plays that station (or creates it if I hadn’t done it already).
I use the alarm and timer regularly.
The best feature for me is the flash briefing - weather, news etc that I set up in the app that plays in the morning when I am waking up but not ready to get out of bed. Hands-free news to start the day. I have about 5-6 different ones (CNN, BBC, NPR whatever) that are just a couple of minutes each, with the longest (10 min) at the end for very lazy mornings.
I have a podcast “skill” too that claims to be able to play most any podcast out there but I haven’t gotten into that much yet.
Every once in awhile I ask if I can give my dog soandso - peanut butter, grapes, whatever, and it tells me.
sign up for the email from Amazon on “what’s new with Alexa” since you get a manageable number of tips each week, with some you might want. I like the flash briefing to get the weather, news ,etc. We have an echo dot near the kitchen so it is useful for timers, for conversions (ask it “how many Tbl in a quarter-cup?” for example). We use an app called OurGroceries and Alexa can link to it so you can add items by voice. It also can link to Google Calendar so you can add events, see what is coming up, etc.
I do think it is a bit oversold in that its only a part of a connected home, not the whole thing. So you’ll need those lightbulbs and switches if you want to turn things on/off. It also works with other controllers such as the Harmony Hub so you can control your entertainment center by voice (we have another dot in the bedroom so we can tell it “Alexa turn on music” and the stereo starts up).
The shopping list is by far my favorite feature. You are standing in front of your open refridgerator and realize you are out of something - just say “Alexa add butter” or whatever you are out of and it’s on your list. Washing dishes at the sink and you are out of dish soap “Alexa add dish soap”. I find my shopping lists are much more complete now.
@adlgel , but where is the shopping list? Does it link to your phone? And then do you have to tell it where to write it? I’m very confused, but would love to know how this works.
There is a smart phone app that links to Alexa so that would be one way to do it – but I personally use a different shopping app on my smart phone which I think is easier to work with than the Alexa app. So for me, it wouldn’t be convenient. I just tried opening the Alexa app and it seemed to take several seconds to open, and then I had to navigate to Lists, and then to Shopping.
My other app opens up immediately to the shopping list page, plus understands enough about how groceries work to set up categories, so “bananas” is under “Produce” and “milk” is under “Dairy”. So very helpful at the grocery store to have the organization. Also, it has speech recogntion, so I don’t actually have to type anything.
There are some other apps that can be tied to Alexa – here is a site for review of some - http://theuncoordinatedmommy.com/grocery-list-apps-work-with-alexa/ – but read the comments as well.
One thing I like about Alexa is the very intuitive speech recognition – I can request things a number of different ways and get good results, rather than having to memorize a precise set of commands. “Alexa, wake me up at 8 am” and “Alexa, set an alarm for 8 am” get the same results – I just don’t have to think about how to phrase things.
But connecting Alexa up to other apps often does require remembering the app name and phrasing requests a certain way.
So it really depends on your individual preferences. Probably better when Alexa can be tied to apps you already use.
@FlyMeToTheMoon You download the Alexa app onto your phone. The shopping list is under the Lists menu option of the app. So you verbally build your list by talking to Alexa whenever you need to add anything. Then when you are in the store you just pull up the list from the Alexa app and check each item off as you add it to your shopping cart. The day I’m going to the store I’ll tell the rest of the family to tell Alexa what they need so that it’s all just waiting for me on my list when I get to the store.
I do agree that, as calmom noted, it’s annoying that when you open the app you have to navigate to lists then shopping and that it doesn’t organize the items by category - they are simply sorted based upon the order in which they are added to the list. I hope that they enhance the app to make this easier to use. But for me, the ability to tell Alexa to add stuff to my list outweighs these negatives.
I also agree with calmom that connecting Alexa to other apps does require remembering how to phrase certain requests. E.g., we have it connected to our Nest thermostat and if I want to ask the thermostat what it’s current temperature setting is I have to remember a specific way to ask it.
STEM people: Ask Alexa for a chemistry joke.
Why can’t you trust atoms?
Because they make up everything!
I love asking for jokes from Alexa!
Ask for a music joke! I used to ask for political jokes but she quit this year.
@OHMomof2 - I have Prime and Amazon Music is included, and the kids are quite happy with it. They were pestering me to update to Spotify Premium last summer and I asked them to give Amazon’s service a try and they have been happy since then. Alexa, obv., is seamless with that.
“not sure I get what more I can do with an Echo versus just using Siri. ?”
Better speakers?
Can you ask Alexa to read the new posts on your bookmarked CC threads? Can she post a dictated reply from you?