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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

#131

Post by empath75 »

sandworm101 wrote: post #114
portmanteaufu wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The problem is that Alexa is just a consumer voice command line. UI discoverability is impossible, and everything that you can do is just a utility that does something else. In a way, I think it's even worse than that. I've used Alexa since the Echo was a relatively new product. Back then, I experimented with new phrases and commands often, but was frequently greeted with wrong answers or "Sorry, I don't know how t…

>> "Hey, we know you tried to ask your Echo to report its volume level before and it didn't work This makes me shudder. Such a functionality would mean that they stored your failed request in some sort of database, a database that they later used to send you a personalized marketing email. A machine cataloging our voice for later inspection is a very dark future. Alexa should delete and scrub any iota of voice that i…

They are 100% storing everything and so is google. You can actually go to google and replay all the recordings they have saved of you.

Re: Amazon’s Alexa Has 80k Apps and No Runaway Hit

#132

Post by oarsinsync »

slg wrote: post #124
darksaints wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be pretty cool if it could update you on things you've asked for in the past that were not possible then but are now possible. "Hey, 3 months ago you asked for the forecast according to the ECMWF weather model, and I couldn't answer you. But now I can, so go ahead and try!".

I wonder if that is too far on the "creepy scale". Everyone probably knows that Amazon has a full record of everything they have asked their Alexa, but I am not sure it is smart to repeatedly remind people of this.

Phrasing comes into play here. Instead of:

> "Hey, 3 months ago you asked for the forecast according to the ECMWF weather model, and I couldn't answer you. But now I can, so go ahead and try!".

What might work more effectively is

"We've been improving our weather forecasting and you can now get the forecast in your area according to a range of new models, including the often requested ECMWF weather model! Give it a try now!"

Re: Amazon’s Alexa Has 80k Apps and No Runaway Hit

#133

Post by crooked-v »

sandworm101 wrote: post #114
portmanteaufu wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The problem is that Alexa is just a consumer voice command line. UI discoverability is impossible, and everything that you can do is just a utility that does something else. In a way, I think it's even worse than that. I've used Alexa since the Echo was a relatively new product. Back then, I experimented with new phrases and commands often, but was frequently greeted with wrong answers or "Sorry, I don't know how t…

>> "Hey, we know you tried to ask your Echo to report its volume level before and it didn't work This makes me shudder. Such a functionality would mean that they stored your failed request in some sort of database, a database that they later used to send you a personalized marketing email. A machine cataloging our voice for later inspection is a very dark future. Alexa should delete and scrub any iota of voice that i…

> Such a functionality would mean that they stored your failed request in some sort of database, a database that they later used to send you a personalized marketing email.

I don't think this kind of thing would need (or even benefit from) actual voice recordings when it comes to the "new functionality" part of things. I would expect something more like a running tally of the X most common failed interactions after running the transcript through a fuzzy-match filter, and a long list of accounts associated with each.

Re: Amazon’s Alexa Has 80k Apps and No Runaway Hit

#134

Post by doctorpangloss »

slg wrote: post #124
darksaints wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be pretty cool if it could update you on things you've asked for in the past that were not possible then but are now possible. "Hey, 3 months ago you asked for the forecast according to the ECMWF weather model, and I couldn't answer you. But now I can, so go ahead and try!".

I wonder if that is too far on the "creepy scale". Everyone probably knows that Amazon has a full record of everything they have asked their Alexa, but I am not sure it is smart to repeatedly remind people of this.

The problem with Alexa is that Amazon runs their R&D team like a consumer research organization.

I mean, you gotta listen to every word that comes out of the customer's mouth right?

Their Principles are too reductive to even guarantee that copies of other people's ideas are successful. For as much of a genius as he may be, Jeff Bezos has created an organization of automatons.

Re: Amazon’s Alexa Has 80k Apps and No Runaway Hit

#135

Post by pnw_hazor »

I bought an echo on an Amazon sale to explore making "skills" for it.

But (at least then) there was no real way to monetize anything using it. Making an interesting skill that people use will just cost you money.

BigCos or VCCos can use skills for generating good will I guess. But independent developers, not so much.

Re: Amazon’s Alexa Has 80k Apps and No Runaway Hit

#136

Post by zwkrt »

I was taking with a friend who said ,"people use Alexa like a toaster, we haven't found what this interface will be really good at"

But what if it /is/ just a toaster? Tech people tend to have high hopes for technology but technology must serve a purpose and it will go the way of the dodo if the purpose of not strong or clear. For me, having a voice interface for music and calls is enough justification for such a device, and I assume this is true for others as well. It's a classic case of over-engineering and then shopping around for a use case for the 25-use Swiss army knife that no one asked for.

Re: Amazon’s Alexa Has 80k Apps and No Runaway Hit

#137

Post by agrippanux »

I've written 15-20 Alexa apps, some public, most for running parts of my life / house.

A big part of the problem for a long time with developing Alexa skills is that if you needed to know where the user was, having them enable location permissions was insane. It required the user to have the Alexa app installed (which almost no one does), then navigate 3-4 fairly technical looking screens and finally flip a switch.

I recently wrote a demo app for a friend's company that needed to know where the user was, and I jumped through a bunch of hoops for an otherwise simple task to avoid the app-permissions-dance. The app I wrote was demoed to the Alexa team by my friend (his company was doing a deal for the company's data to be supplied to Amazon), and the feedback he got from the Alexa execs was they know the location permissions process was a big issue.

I think it's gotten better recently with the redesign of the Alexa app, but I haven't checked it out yet - I don't have any desire to release a public Alexa app. I just to keep my stuff in developer mode and customized to my needs.

Re: Amazon’s Alexa Has 80k Apps and No Runaway Hit

#138

Post by r3bl »

massivecali wrote: post #43
StevePerkins wrote: post #18

My Echo was an interesting novelty at first. But a couple years in now, it is essentially (in order of usefulness): 1. An alarm clock / kitchen timer 2. A thing that tells me the weather report during morning coffee, so I know what to wear 3. A DJ that my kids yell at to play pop music If it died tomorrow, I'd probably just go back to using my phone for these 3 things rather than buy a new one. I can't imagine gettin…

I see the house dj speaker aspect, but why does anyone need the first 2 when their phones accommodate those functions?

Same thing: convenience.

Find the phone, unlock the phone, find and open the app, find and click the control. That requires some effort.

Saying commands, having physical buttons at the expected location in your home, NFC tags.. there's a bunch of more convenient ways to do extremely repetitive tasks that would otherwise take you more time to do.

Re: Amazon’s Alexa Has 80k Apps and No Runaway Hit

#139

Post by jscheel »

vertis wrote: post #62

Disclaimer: I haven't played with this since 2016, so may be out of date. Having played with the Alexa and Google home. My take on why there are no hits is that it's very clunky to invoke apps, especially for one-off queries. "Hey, Alexa/Google, Ask to do " or some variation on that. Starting an app and then interacting with it works fine for some use cases but not all. It really needs to be a flow of install app for…

Agreed, there needs to be a paradigm shift in registering intents. I should not create a skill that the user needs to remember a command for. Instead, my skill should be able to hook into intents and return structured data. For example:

"Me: Alexa, find me a hotel near the beach in Destin, Florida that is available next week"

"Alexa: Hotels.com has a three star hotel available for $987 for six nights, and Airbnb has a four bedroom condo available for the same dates. Would you like to book one of these, or hear more options?"

"Me: Book the first hotel."

...and so on...

In this instance, Amazon has to define the schema for user intention, and hotels.com and Airbnb must provide interfaces to that intent, responding with normalized/standardized data that Alexa can then reconfigure into an appropriate response. Amazon has to throw their weight around to get other companies to play the game, and it's on them to organize the returned data into an appropriate response. This is probably where a discussion about the semantic web would be useful :)

Re: Amazon’s Alexa Has 80k Apps and No Runaway Hit

#140

Post by k__ »

ravenstine wrote: post #98
k__ wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"You can't actually have a 'slot' which contains a freeform piece of text " What about AMAZON.SearchQuery?

That's a relatively new slot type.

Ah okay, I had the impression it was the replacement for LITERAL
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