Please educate me on Alexas!

[Settle59]

I have resisted things like internet/on line banking/even emails for the longest possible time on the premise that I was 'quite happy living in 1985, thank you very much!'

I've just been given an Alexa as a gift. How do I use it? What does it do?
Thanks in advance, any feedback welcome!

I think there’s a 50:50 split regarding Alexas. People seem to either love them or despise them.
I was in the despise group but then we got one about 3 weeks ago. Overall, I’m still in the despise group.
It turns the tv on and off for us.
It plays music - but if you don’t link it to your Spotify a/c or specify (eg Coldplay) exactly what you want it just plays the same music each day.
DS has one in his bedroom so we use it to call him down for dinner.
It will give you recipes, order your shopping, tell you jokes, turn the lights on/off - but to be honest overall they’re pretty useless things.
Interestingly, I was considering getting one for my 84yr old mother who is alone and locked down. I thought it would give her someone else to talk to 😀
I always find myself saying please and thank you too.

I’ve got an Echo in the main bedroom and a Dot in the front room and kitchen. Mainly use them for music and radio stations. I pay for Amazon Unlimited Music because I found the free version didn’t have a lot of the stuff I wanted to listen to, but if you’re not bothered about that it’s not essential and perfectly possible to just have the free music or add music stations. You have to pay more to play the same music on multiple devices but generally I’m in one room asking it to play Led Zep and DH has a radio station on in another room, so that isn’t really something we need to have.
It’s linked to the Fire Stick on the Tv but I never use that, although DS does sometimes. We don’t have any of the interactive lightbulbs or anything.
If I’m bored I explore the Skills. Spent a happy half hour miaowing back and forth with Alexa last week
Relaxation skills quite good as background if I want to tune out a neighbour’s lawnmower etc.
Use the one in the bedroom as an alarm- there are default alarms or you can ask for a particular piece of music to wake you up. Just need to remember to turn the volume down if you’ve had it on Loud the previous day!

I have Alexa attached to my Facebook Portal. My OH uses it to play music from Amazon Music when he cooks. I just Facetime the grandchildren

I can't see the point either .... we've been gifted one by my BiL and we have yet to get it out of the box. I just can't think of anything it can add to my life. I'm firmly in the despise group, however, so I'm hoping DH is going to forget we've actually got it and not bother with it.

My DBro - who is a bit of tech type - won't have one in the house for "security" reasons ...... that's a good enough opinion for me.

We have several. The one in the kitchen has been programmed so that when I say good morning to it it gives me the days weather, tells me what I’ve got scheduled at work and then plays my favourite breakfast radio station. It turns itself off after I leave for work. I also use it to add to my Ocado shop, for timers, for alarms. I can use it to voice control my Bose music system all around the house. I can tell DS when dinner is ready. I can do quick fact checks “Alexa how old is Alan Titchmarsh?”, settle family arguments “Alexa when did ABBA win Eurovision?” Ours isn’t connected to any of our lights but we may do that at some point.

Good thread!

Here's a question - I've been considering getting one for elderly DM. She lives in a retirement flat which has pull strings in every room, which connect to someone remote who is on call, and who will take the appropriate action should DM fall, or otherwise be unwell.

She's had a couple of falls recently, and a bout of nasty illness. Would she be able to link the Echo/whatever to her Samsung phone and ask it to phone either me or DSis?

Also, could she ask it to keep a list of the shopping she needs, adding to it as she goes along, that isn't linked to a supermarket shopping website?

Things I use mine for:
Turning on/dimming lights (I use Phillips hue/compatible lights, other brands are available).
Clock
Alarm
Timer
Turning on/off TV (in conjunction with tplink smart plugs)
Playing music
Adjust heating (in conjunction with Nest thermostat)

We got one not long ago and after the initial novelty (eg kids asking it to fart, tell jokes etc) it's only really used for background music, news and weather now.

We also got one for MIL (who lives alone) at Xmas though and apparently it's been a godsend in lockdown. She asks it questions, does quizzes, listens to music, asks for interesting facts etc. Apparently there's some way to ask it what new things it can do that week/what interesting things to ask and it will prompt you. We get a weekly update from MIL. As far as I know though you can't get it to keep a shopping list unless you have it linked to an online shop.

@MrsJoshNavidi yes. We got one for MIL who's been falling recently and linked it to phone so if she says : Alexa call 'FIL/DS/DIL' it called and you talk through Alexa. In that respect it's quite handy

Thanks for all your feedback. I didn't even realise there were different types like 'Dot' and 'Echo'!!

Thanks Stanski. Sounds like it might do the job then.

And Feedmecheese that's a shame. But I guess she could start an online shop and give me her account password so I can download it and "manually" buy the stuff.

She doesn't do big enough shops to make it worth ordering groceries on line, and doesn't have a kitchen/freezer big enough to store, say, a month's worth of food. It would just be wasted.

The Echo is the bigger one, but tbh the sound on the Dot is more than adequate, although I am looking at fancy speakers to link it to when we get our new kitchen.

I'm still getting used to mine.

The other day I used it to set a reminder, and Alexa very nicely said "This is a reminder for your cottage pie" at the appropriate time.

Then, getting a bit carried away with my success, I set a reminder for a TV programme. I must have phrased it a different way as instead of talking Alexa just beeped at the right time.

The first thing I thought was "Oh, no, I've upset her, she's not talking to me, what did I say...?"

Then a second later, it dawned on me that I was nuts....

I bought one for each of my DC so they could play their choice of music in their rooms - the bonus being that they now ask her a million questions a day that they would have been asking me. I can also set reminders for routine stuff that my DD really struggles with - she has a learning difficulty which affects her executive functioning.

I wasn’t a fan initially but I’ve definitely been won over.

Great for time management - timing my breaks at work.
Great for setting alarms.
Great for giving orders whilst cooking wish messy hands.

I may have had a screaming bitch fit at her when she misheard my alarm cancelling for the tenth time.

We have three & use them for all sorts.

I'm currently playing Heart Yorkshire on the kitchen one - she does sometimes ignore that request and play Hallam FM instead though .

Dd2 is listening to one of the Harry Potter books on hers. And dd1 is streaming Hamilton from Spotify again.

Myself and dd2 use them for timers (cooking and teeth brushing, respectively). I set reminders and make various announcements through the day.

I can set a reminder for dd1 in a morning (normally) if there's something she needs for school, or I need her to do something before she leaves (I'm first out the door usually).

Dd2 often uses it for homework help if I'm not sure (OK Google on my phone also responds to these questions & is usually more reliable, though).

Only downside is sometimes it can't "hear" me properly (over running water or whatever) and so doesn't do what I ask, or when t'interweb connection isn't great & it tells me "hmm, I don't know that one" . I sometimes think it's just done for the day tbh.

The speaker/microphone must be quite good though; it picks up me announcing to dd1 that it's bed time from the living room.

Ooh also, it plays sound effects if you say the right thing...dd1 can get it to do a circus "ta-da" and dd2 birdsong, before it makes an announcement. But I've no idea how

Thanks so much everyone for enlightening me - so if I understand this correctly - you need an internet up for Alexa to work - do you need anything else?

It most definitely can have a shopping list not connected to online shopping. We use it all the time. You can have any number of lists for different things.

Settle, we use ours for radio (Alexa, play radio 4), news, weather, time, alarms, reminders.
We ask her how to spell things, 'what's the tallest mountain in France', 'tell me about hamsters' and so on.
We make announcements (dinner time) that go to every device in the house.
Call between rooms (multiple devices).

So many things.
Ours is a three story house with one on every level, so it's good for rounding people up.

Oh yes, shopping lists.

All that is just with internet. If you subscribe to amazon prime, Spotify or similar then you get more use.

Also, could she ask it to keep a list of the shopping she needs, adding to it as she goes along, that isn't linked to a supermarket shopping website?

To clarify a PP - yes, it can keep a shopping list with no link to any kind of shop.

The actual devices are called Echoes (Echo Dot is the smallest, ‘standard’ Echo is a tallish cylinder, there’s a taller one now as well (Plus?), Echo Spot is a round alarm-clock-looking thing so has a small screen, and the Echo Show is a rectangular model more designed for screen use. Alexa is the software).

I like asking it for quizzes to do whilst im cooking dinner and i use it as a timer. My kids like asking it to fart and my 2yr old likes thw song it aings if you say Alexa i love you

Mostly use it for playing the radio or music from my spotify account, calling kids down for dinner and adding to various lists.
Love the 'drop in' feature to talk to the kids when they are in their bedrooms and use them to set reminders to tell them 'lights off and kindles down'.
Mostly I love being able to google odd things without needing to pick up my phone and look at a screen, or when I am busy cooking etc.

Thanks everyone. I wasn't the OP, but I think you've convinced me to buy one for DM's birthday. It's only £30 ish for the Echo Dot, so if she doesn't use it, what the hell!

I'm thinking we could plug in reminders about car MOT and the like for her, so at least she can let us know in advance when it's due, not wait for us to remember to check and find it's expired :)

Yes you need WiFi connection op for Alexa to work.

We have four, linked throughout the house, and blue toothed to speakers, it means I can play the same music simultaneously in all the downstairs rooms at once if I so wish Ie when I have guests over.

I also have a three floor house so can tell her to drop in on my husband to save me climbing stairs or phoning him. My husband uses it as a timer, I tend not to, I play music more on it. You can also do things like joe Wickes on it and it holds your place in the workout till the next time you wish to resume.

It also has a noise app where it will make bathroom or kitchen noises etc so when you’re out it sounds like someone is in the house. You can also tell her to call someone and she will call them from the contacts on your phone. Also you can tell her to add things to your Ocado shopping troller or your amazon one, or create a shopping list, or ask for reminders Ie alarms to be set at certain times Ie remind me on Sunday it’s Susan’s birthday.

For me though the main benefit is the music, I have it linked to both my Spotify and amazon prime accounts, and as said, can then play the same music in different rooms at the same time. Which is great as you can be having drinks in one room and move to another for dinner, and the same music is playing and you don’t need to mess with it.