Not Aibu but can't find a suitable subject - Alexa echo and dot

[itsbritneybiatches]

Sorry it's not an Aibu but I may be wanting one of these...

What are they for?

Do I put one in every room?

Why would I put one in every room?

Do the dots connect together or do you need an echo to connect all the dots to?

Am lost with this. Family are asking for them but no one really knows anything about them in our house.

If I get special plugs can they turn the kettle
And the tv off etc?

Well, you could start by reading what amazon has to say about them and what they do:

echo products

Until recently I just had one in the kitchen and I'd mostly use it to listen to radio stations (even the Beeb!), set timers, check the weather, hourly news summaries from NPR and to check traffic on my way to work.

Then I got a new one for Christmas and put the old one in the bedroom. If you have more than one you can use one to make announcements on the others, like "dinner is ready" or "get out of bed you lazy git".

They all connect independently over your wifi. Echo is the name for the whole product family. Dot is the smallest and least expensive model. Others have much better speakers for music or built in screens. And they will control special plugs for turning things on and off.

Thank you.

Just to clarify, I could have a dot in every room if I wasn't fussed on the speaker sound level and they would all connect?

The would connect in that you could use them as intercoms:

www.cnet.com/how-to/how-to-use-alexa-drop-in-intercom/

Is that what you want to do?

They'd all have to have decent wifi signals.

Yep that's all I want to do really and get some plugs to be able to turn things in and off over voice.

I can't do the lights in some rooms because we have fancy ceiling lights not typical
Bulbs, small little tiny bulb things.

And to eventually connect the central
Heating.

Maybe get a ring doorbell at some point.

There is an echo 2nd generation brand new for £26 on eBay and I was going to get a couple of them purely because they are cheaper than a dot.

For what I want do you think this is the best way? Your obv clued up about it 

Here's some info on the smart home features:

smart home

I don't know about connectivity to ring doorbell or thermostat since I haven't tried either. You should be able to google about those.

So there are second generation dots on ebay for 26 quid? I think the functionality is the same as the third generation other than the sound:

gen 2 vs gen 3

I think you could certainly do it that way. If it were me, I'd probably buy the 3rd gen dots directly from amazon to make sure I had the technical support and warranty coverage and the better sound, especially if you're going to spend a lot more on other add ons, but you could always buy the gen 2 dots and replace them in a year or two if needed.

Oh, and the gen three dots have bluetooth so that you can connect a wireless speaker to them. That's a nice option and in the future they'll probably use the bluetooth connectivity for other things.

Too bad you didn't buy them before Christmas, they were hugely discounted. I bought two gen 3 dots for $29 each.

I have an echo and 3 dots. Echo is in the living room, a dot in my bedroom and both kids have a dot in their room.

They are smart enough that when you say "Alexa" it's only the closest one that responds. They're mostly used for listening to music, I can control the living room, kitchen and my bedroom lights and "drop in" on the kids to tell them tea is ready, etc.

They are all on the same network. I've put them on my account so they have the same music access, etc. I changed some settings in my Amazon account though so you can't just buy stuff by asking Alexa cos I had visions of the kids ordering all sorts

By the way, there's a Alexa smartphone app where you set everything up and manage the devices. It's really good.

The DCs have Dots in their rooms, and I have Alexa in the kitchen. I can’t work out if they can have independent accounts but still have the ‘drop in’ facility. Currently we all have access to DDs contacts and music and I have a headache from it all. 😩

I’m sure there must be a solution but buggered if I can figure it out.

I got my mum a dot for xmas she's pretty chuffed she can voice control her Cher and celine Dion tunes but I'm following as I don't see the point of them myself

are you on Facebook? There’s a good uk Alexa group

We have three echos, two spots, and a dot. They are set up so that we can use them individually, or as an upstairs group, or downstairs group.

The echos are out main source of music, and pretty much always have radio on the rest of the time, so they are always in use. We also have the TV on a Firestick (no idea how that works ), and the spots are also used as alarm clocks etc.

DS1 and I have our bedroom lights with smart socket things.

DH spends hours playing Pointless on it too. Fine by me, as it gives him someone else to talk to.

@itsbritneybiatches you can get the gen 3 echo dot directly from amazon UK for 30 quid:

echo dot

That's a much better deal than the gen 2 dots you saw on ebay.

We have Google home as opposed to Alexa.
You might want to check out the competition! There are light switch adaptions as well as bulbs if you wanted to go fully voice!

If you’re hoping to go down the smart home route, get an Echo Plus, not an Echo. The Plus has a thingy built in to it which ‘speaks’ to the lightbulb etc. If you get an Echo (not Plus) then you’ll have to also buy the thingy that bridges the lightbulb (etc) to the Echo

Thank you everyone I have loads to read up on now. I am going to get a couple of dots I think to start me off then I can always add the plus as I get used to it. Then the bulbs, then the doorbell then the central heating thingy 

That’s what we’ve done. Started with the dots, then got an echo, then added an echo plus (just last month. Had the Dots for about a year I think).

They all seem to have a deal of some sort on every few months/twice a year, so it’s worth waiting for a lower price.

@notquiterichenough - how???!! Can you point me in the direction of how you set them up individually please?

We have a dot in every room, mostly use them for turning lights on and off as we have a Philips hue system and use it to control music through the Sonos system.

I think the other main things we use it for are adding things to the shopping list, setting timers, quick googling things if I've got my hands full

I have a smart lightbulb as DS2 is always leaving his bloody light on. Yet to set it up.

itsbritneybiatches instead of bulbs you could look at getting a switch to control your lights.

You set them up through the ap on your phone. So, if I go into the ap, I can see each of the individual devices.

We started with a dot in DS1's room. We bought an echo in the sales last year, and then added when they were cheap (never bought one full price).

we are going to get dots for each room (yes they were much cheaper in November annoyingly). We have an echo downstairs and a firestick which also seems to connect to it. I've also managed to connect my sonos speakers. But I'm clueless.

Do you need special lights in order to do that? I'm pretty sure I'm not using our echo properly.

Thanks! I’ve done that but we all get DDs contact list - but I don’t want to hijack this thread (apologies OP!)

Appreciate your help - will have another go! 😄

Just found these light switches on amazon, work with Alexa and google home.

www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07DYH7CYL/ref=asc_df_B07DYH7CYL57740590/?hvlocphy=9073596&linkCode=df0&hvptwo&hvnetw=g&hvadid=309950309033&creative=22146&hvpone&hvlocint&creativeASIN=B07DYH7CYL&hvpos=1o1&hvdev=t&hvdvcmdl&hvqmt&tag=mumsnetforum-21&hvtargid=pla-556664781799&hvrand=17530177994424489860