Amazon Alexa - what do you use it for?

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I've got one and am seriously underwhelmed!

It's great for playing music (though can't seem to play my spotify playlists, just play music from particular artists etc...)
It's good at telling you the weather

but
It can't add items to my ocado basket
it can't tell me if my train is on time / what time the next train is to x or y
It can't tell me if a flight has landed/is delayed

What can it do? What am i missing?

We have the hive so can use it to put the heating on and off, and turn on lights. V useful.

I'm pretty underwhelmed by it too.

Have you looked through the skills and enabled some? Skills are apps, basically. My DC are very fond of the Roast Me one We use it for that mostly cinema times, weather, story telling app. DD gets it to be a cat (meow app) To do and shopping lists, music (Next, Computer, NEXT)

ah so i actually have to enable some stuff? i thought it would just be there if that makes sense.
will take a look...

I've added the fart skill, jokes etc
all rather underwhelming
I have amazon music and love it .It can connect to spotify as well I think . If you're on Facebook there is a group on there that is very helpful.

the "skills" seem to be very location specific, guess we have to wait for the app developers to write them for alexa, am sure it's only a matter of time.

yes i've linked it to spotify which is good - you have to have a premium account. But it can just play from the music library not play a playlist i have created (unless i'm not asking nicely enough!)

My friend uses it for her shopping list ,so will suddenly say "Alexa add bread to the shopping list"

I use her to play my Spotify playlists, she can do that!

We add things to the shopping list, good as DS will add things he needs and I will see it when I do the shopping, so no need for me to remember

The weather every morning, a flash briefing every morning, she plays the radio, she sets timers ( really useful, I probably do this five times a day at least)

She adds things to our family Google calendar

She's good at maths too, eg if I'm cooking and doubling a recipe, or converting oven temp

I mainly use ours to listen to the radio and tell me the news and weather but we have just bought posh light bulbs so she can switch the lights on and off too.

thanks will try again with the playlists.

re the shopping list, is this just a note you then check when you're doing your shopping?

a "flash briefing" - is that the news?

radio would be good... and timers.

we don't have a family google calendar, could do with a family calendar, will look into an outlook one.

this is great, keep 'em coming. Have joined the facebook group too though it seems quite tech-help rather than ideas rich.

I didn't think the skills were location specific at all - just go into the Alexa app on your phone, then on the main menu go to Skills. You can get the sea shipping forecast

there's stuff only relevant to Seattle
buses near to SE13 etc..
not all, but quite a lot

Animal Letters is a great game for kids:
www.amazon.co.uk/Drew-Cosgrove-Animal-Letters-x/dp/B01N2ML4V5?tag=mumsnetforum-21

We mainly use ours for playing music. Kids like to keep themselves amused by asking her random facts and jokes though.

I've got a dot in the kitchen and mainly use it for music, a kitchen timer and for adding to a shopping list.