What do you use Alexa/Echo/Google Home for?

[disneysteve]

Do you have a digital assistant like Alexa or Google Home? If so, what types of things do you use it for?

Our niece works for Google and gave us all Google Home Minis for Chanukah. I just know what to do with it.

[phantom]

I collect dust with my Amazon Echo Dot. My company gave all the engineers one several months ago, and I haven't been able to bring myself to use it, but I haven't been able to throw it away either. The idea of letting some company listen to everything I say in exchange for the marginal convenience of being able to do things without pulling out my phone doesn't seem entirely worth it to me. I keep Siri disabled for similar reasons.

I have a few friends who use them though. One friend mostly uses his for controlling his home media, changing what videos and music are playing and changing the volume. Sometimes he asks it questions. I went to a party at another friend's house, and she was constantly using hers to set timers on food and such. (She still managed to burn a pizza though.)

[disneysteve]

About the only time I ever use Siri is to set a timer when cooking. I can’t think of anything else I use it for.

[Tabs]

I personally don't use it for two reasons:

1. It's a security threat.

2. I already have it on my phone, and I find the only time I really use it is when I'm driving.

I really do like where all this is going though. I also think that, as technology progresses, I think the keyboard's status as the king-of-the-hill input device will slowly decline (but not completely fade away), as future generations will have more and more intuitive alternatives, such as these devices, where they can just talk to it to get their basic computing tasks done.

[kaysmom]

I use the Echo Show mainly for music, but also to set cooking timers and add items to my shopping list. Nice to be able to add to my shopping list as I'm cooking and run low on items without having to wash my hands and get into my phone. I have also used it for Wikipedia, sports and news updates, as well as showing my calendar entries, youtube videos and prime videos. I do look forward to other uses. I haven't had it that long.

We also have an Echo Dot and regular Echo. The dot is mainly used as an alarm clock in our bedroom. We have seven smart plugs we can control with any of the Echos, currently set to turn the Christmas lights on with the words "Merry Christmas" and turning them off with "Good Night."

I'm not really worried about Amazon spying on me. There are many other ways to get whatever information they're going to hear (or in the case of the Show, see) before or after I say "Alexa".

And to think, a year ago I was saying I didn't need one and trying to figure out why anyone would.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Everyone I know uses it for music and timer and ordering stuff. It's stupid and ridiculous to be honest. My DK are getting one from my parents for christmas but I wasn't about to waste the money.

I mean all it does is order more stuff from amazon? Why waste more money? But heck it is a great gimmick for ordering more stuff you don't need.

[breathemusic]

Most of our lights, our front door lock, garage door, thermostat, and soon our entertainment system are all set up on smart systems. Our roommate just managed to get a bunch of Amazon dots free from work, and he has the Echo already. So we're setting them up throughout the house to control the home functions. He uses his more regularly to ask it to summarize his schedule every morning while he's getting ready for work so that he make sure he dresses appropriately (meetings vs not) and for alarms and such. Plus, his little girl loves to talk to it and ask it to play music or answer questions. We may use it to create household shopping lists since we have 3 different adults in the house at various times, but I'd never actually just ask it to straight up order something in my amazon cart, so we disabled that function. I wouldn't spend a ton of money on those little digital assistants, but when they're free I'm willing to get them!

[greenskeeper]

I got HAL setup just this week, but he won't unlock the door for me ?

[bjl584]

I don't have any of those devices.
Seems a bit gimmicky at this stage of the game.

[Butterscotch]

I use it for music, but I find it most valuable for random things I want to know. Like what’s is the weather today, or something like how many ounces in a cup, or anything else I would otherwise google. Alexa can answer them faster than I can grab my phone, bring up a browser and google the question at hand.

Today I asked it what day of the week is February 19th because I needed to verify an appointment I had. They are just easy to have around. Yes, there are other ways to do things, but hey, it’s fast and cuts down screen time. It’s so easy to google a quick question and then find yourself sucked into something totally unrelated.

[Budget Kitty]

We received an Alexa Echo as a gift last year and we use it mostly for streaming music. In the morning I ask what the weather will be like. The kids like to ask it all sorts of random questions like "How many minutes are there until Christmas?"

[scfr]

We're looking at getting a new thermostat and one DH likes is the ecobee4 which comes with built-in Alexa Voice Service, so I've been researching it. I like the idea of some of the features. As far as I can tell, we wouldn't need to buy any additional devices or subscriptions to use the Alexa Voice Service.

We have android phones. We don't have any Amazon echo dots or other such devices. We don't subscribe to Amazon Prime. We don't have any music services.

I'm guessing that the primary limitations will be:

1) Range. If I'm in the bathroom or kitchen and notice that there is something that needs to be added to the grocery list, I'll probably need to walk over to near the thermostat to speak to it, right? And if I'm in the bedroom getting dressed for the day and want to know what the outside temperature is, I'd need to walk over to the thermostat to ask? That's not going to happen! And if I wanted to play music, will it play radio stations just through the little speaker on the thermostat? Can't see how it could do otherwise.

2) Limited services since we do not and will not subscribe to any sort of monthly-fee services like Prime or music streaming.

[ShawnaC123]

Everyone I know uses it for music and timer and ordering stuff. It's stupid and ridiculous to be honest. My DK are getting one from my parents for christmas but I wasn't about to waste the money.

I mean all it does is order more stuff from amazon? Why waste more money? But heck it is a great gimmick for ordering more stuff you don't need.

Yeah and when you buy stuff you don't get to comparison shop so I'm sure it orders one of the more expensive items for you.

[sblatner]

Each day, I say "Hello Google" and it says

Good Morning Susan. Then it tells me the weather, what my schedule looks like on my calendar and then the latest news.

We use it for a timer, for music, for fun - you can find funny things to ask it online.

We enjoy having it around.

[Gailete]

I don't have any of those gadgets, but I never realized what all they could do. I used to be able to cook an entire thanksgiving dinner without setting a timer. Now I have to use a timer for everything. I can also see where it would be good for the elderly when they have fallen and can't get up. Especially when they are alone in the house.