Amazon’s Alexa Has 80k Apps and No Runaway Hit
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Amazon’s Alexa Has 80k Apps and No Runaway Hit
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Re: Amazon’s Alexa Has 80k Apps and No Runaway Hit
#2Alexa is a glorified lighting management system for me. Given it’s current capabilities, that’s all it’s going to be for the foreseeable future. Oh, I’ll ask it the weather sometimes, but come on - what can Alexa really do that’s all that compelling, that already isn’t a capability of Siri/Google?
Re: Amazon’s Alexa Has 80k Apps and No Runaway Hit
#3How is the discovery of Alexa apps? Other platforms often had hits because they had some viral component that helped the apps spread.
Re: Amazon’s Alexa Has 80k Apps and No Runaway Hit
#4Linking my Apple Music to Alexa was huge for me. It’s nice to be able to play my playlists or pick an album.
Re: Amazon’s Alexa Has 80k Apps and No Runaway Hit
#5Alexa is a glorified lighting management system for me. Given it’s current capabilities, that’s all it’s going to be for the foreseeable future. Oh, I’ll ask it the weather sometimes, but come on - what can Alexa really do that’s all that compelling, that already isn’t a capability of Siri/Google?
I don't have an Alexa myself, I'm a Google Home user. One thing that's always impressed me is the ability of Alexa to order things from Amazon just by issuing voice commands. Although, I'm sure that comes with its own host of problems, especially if you're not just ordering a generic product.
Re: Amazon’s Alexa Has 80k Apps and No Runaway Hit
#6I bought an Echo speaker when they first came out. The sound quality is impressive (to my untrained ear), but the development experience is not.
The first thing I wanted to do was to add a feature so I could add a task to my to-do list software which is not supported by Alexa. It turns out that you cannot construct a sentence along the lines of "Tell Asana to add a task: ". You can't actually have a 'slot' which contains a freeform piece of text, even if it is the last piece of text in the sentence.
The Alexa API differs between regions, so the North America version of the API supports this but the EU version doesn't. It was removed from the NA version for a while but placed back after a bit of an uproar.
I think you could develop some more useful stuff using Alexa if only this feature was consistently available. I cannot think of a good reason why it isn't.
I now just mainly have it as a Spotify speaker, and occasionally I use it as an expensive egg timer. I normally have it on mute because I find it activates and starts recording private conversations. I don't see it getting better.
Re: Amazon’s Alexa Has 80k Apps and No Runaway Hit
#7Alexa is a glorified lighting management system for me. Given it’s current capabilities, that’s all it’s going to be for the foreseeable future. Oh, I’ll ask it the weather sometimes, but come on - what can Alexa really do that’s all that compelling, that already isn’t a capability of Siri/Google?
I don't have an Alexa myself, I'm a Google Home user. One thing that's always impressed me is the ability of Alexa to order things from Amazon just by issuing voice commands. Although, I'm sure that comes with its own host of problems, especially if you're not just ordering a generic product.
Ordering via Alexa is something I would definitely, never do, in any scenario.
Re: Amazon’s Alexa Has 80k Apps and No Runaway Hit
#8I bought an Echo speaker when they first came out. The sound quality is impressive (to my untrained ear), but the development experience is not. The first thing I wanted to do was to add a feature so I could add a task to my to-do list software which is not supported by Alexa. It turns out that you cannot construct a sentence along the lines of "Tell Asana to add a task: ". You can't actually have a 'slot' which cont…
> I normally have it on mute because I find it activates and starts recording private conversations.
What?!
Re: Amazon’s Alexa Has 80k Apps and No Runaway Hit
#9Alexa is a glorified lighting management system for me. Given it’s current capabilities, that’s all it’s going to be for the foreseeable future. Oh, I’ll ask it the weather sometimes, but come on - what can Alexa really do that’s all that compelling, that already isn’t a capability of Siri/Google?
Two timers at once. Great in the kitchen. But you’re right... Why can’t Siri do that?
A device with multiple microphones is more useful from the couch, especially when I need to yell into the kitchen. I don’t want to feel the need to keep my phone within earshot at all times.
I wish Apple had such a $30 device for Siri but it’s unlikely.
Re: Amazon’s Alexa Has 80k Apps and No Runaway Hit
#10Alexa is a glorified lighting management system for me. Given it’s current capabilities, that’s all it’s going to be for the foreseeable future. Oh, I’ll ask it the weather sometimes, but come on - what can Alexa really do that’s all that compelling, that already isn’t a capability of Siri/Google?
I don't have an Alexa myself, I'm a Google Home user. One thing that's always impressed me is the ability of Alexa to order things from Amazon just by issuing voice commands. Although, I'm sure that comes with its own host of problems, especially if you're not just ordering a generic product.
You can order things from Amazon using Alexa but you can’t delete items from your cart using Alexa. For me this makes it useless. Not being able to delete items makes it user unfriendly. Unless Amazon changes this I’m not going to use Alexa.