AIBU to not buy multiple echo dot's without knowing it they will do the job?

[ChristmasLightLover]

DH thinks as they are on offer, we should have one for each bedroom (x3), one for kitchen (x1) and one for each lounge (x2). I think that we do not need all this stuff. How many do you have in your house? Where do you use them the most?

Also, please explain to me if we as a family, we can each be in our bedrooms, with an echo dot and each listen to a different audible book, from the same audible family account, or the same spotify family account, whilst we go to sleep. Is this possible?? I can't work this out.

By having to link them to different Amazon accounts, you lose some of the functionality that you would otherwise get from linked Dots such as intercoms.

Thank you so much for all the info on this thread - I’ve just ordered one each of the 3rd gen for ds’s Christmas!

I agree AWK, I think it’s worth spending the extra fiver. Wish the Echo Plus was on as at half price!!

Well... The Echo plusis an Echo with a Zigbee hub built in. A Hue hub is under £50, and in fact there are some terrific Hue offers on Amazon for Black Friday that include bulbs, hub and a Dot for £80.

The Hue hub is by all reports superior to the Echo's built in hub. So why not by an Echo for £55 and a Hue hub for far less than an Echo plus (£140)?

However if you want the Echo plus specifically for music because it has superior sound, then that is different. But there are tons of great speakers at that sort of price point - personally I would wait for a BF deal on the Sonos One!

I’ll investigate, thanks Haffiana!

John Lewis reduced them all too but you get 2 year warranty so better deal than Amazon imo

I find if I tell Alexa in the kitchen to play something, I go upstairs and the Alexa there is playing it too with no one there. She can hear me talking to downstairs Alexa.

@AdobeWanKenobi hero 👍

Just ordered three thanks to this thread!!

Well that's 2 echo dots ordered for my sons' bedrooms 😂

How do you use them as intercoms? Do you ask Alexa Kitchen to call Alexa bedroom?

That’s a lot
We have two - our bedroom and kitchen

Pretty much beachy
You have to set it up and then say “Alexa drop in on ‘room name’”
Whatever you have named that room

Very good for shouting husband to get Diet Coke

Haven’t used it for that but do use Hive for it. One of best features

Thanks, can I drop in on my dads down the road do you think? If he's in my group? I'd quite like him to be able to shout at it/me if he needs something (although I appreciate, this could get annoying )

@beachyhead you can either say ‘Alexa, make an announcement’ and whatever you say is then recorded and then played on all the Echos/Dots/etc, or, you can say ‘Alexa, drop in on bedroom’ and then it’s a two way system (you can speak to the people in the bedroom when you’re in the kitchen, and they can talk back). It’s quite handy :)

If you wanted to speak to your Dad then you just say ‘Alexa, call Dad’ so long as you’ve added him to your contacts list and he’s accepted incoming calls. It’s a good feature, and is like a back-up community care alarm too (for example, if your dad was frail and fell, and couldn’t reach the phone - or fell on top of his care alarm if he had one, then he can shout from the floor ‘Alexa, call beachy’)

We bought him one last year as he's blind so we thought he would be able to access the internet easily. It hasn't quite worked out, but he uses it for the time, weather etc....
He has some appointments on it, but we are not using it to it's fullest, I don't think.

YouTube videos have been very helpful for realising Alexa’s potential. My favourite feature is the shopping list, because my memory is like a sieve! And I love the alarm and the fact you can name them - ‘Alexa, set an alarm for the pizza’ and then when the alarm time is up she’ll say ‘your pizza timer is up’ for example. I’ve set reminders on it too, so, for example, she’s going to remind me on the 5th of February that the kids have the dentist that week, and she reminds me each Tuesday to put the rubbish out. The only thing I wish they’d do is give you the option to set the reminders for fortnightly instead of weekly, because that way I could set one reminder for the rubbish and another for the recycling - I can never remember which week is which!

What if she reminds you and you aren’t there? Will she remind you again?

LOVE the idea of the elderly using them to ring family for help.

If you get the IFTTT app then you can link it to your Alexa and then you get a notification to your phone/tablet etc every time an alarm or reminder goes off :)

@BadgersBiggestFan I saw a programme where the elderly were given them to remind them when to take medication. Good use of tech, I think....

I think the disabled and elderly will become Alexa’s biggest market users in time. So many possibilities. Mum is hoping to get electric curtains which can be voice controlled via Alexa (she has arthritis and on bad days wouldn’t be able to work a remote control).

We started with 3 dots, when they were on a 3 for 2 offer. One in the kitchen and one for each daughter’s bedroom. Recently bought an Echo, so I moved the Dot to my room and the Echo is in the kitchen.

I love the Dots. The children listen to audio books at bedtime, use it for alarms, music and best of all as an intercom - saves shouting in a big house. In the kitchen it’s used more for listening to the radio, kitchen cooking timers and still as an intercom. The Echo is disappointing, it has a better quality sound but I just don’t like it as much.

Get one now, they’re a great price ATM. Try it, if you like it buy what you want quickly.

As a side effect, it has HUGELY improved my younger daughter’s clarity of speech too.

Fantastic. I love this!

Mine came today! I love them so much but my kids are driving me mad constantly dropping in. Such a handy feature though so hopefully the novelty will wear off soon and we can use them properly.

So so pleased with them!