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In this case, the fixed location plus the far field mic are great. When she's alone, she spends all of her time in her home. She lives in a pretty small place w
by sisk 11y ago
In this case, the fixed location plus the far field mic are great. When she's alone, she spends all of her time in her home. She lives in a pretty small place which means she can basically ask to start a phone call from anywhere and she'll be able to interact with the Echo. It's as much the hardware as it is the platform that makes it all work in this case.
I have no doubts the tech could facilitate something similar on Google and Apple's platforms but, afaik, building comparable functionality isn't currently possible (at least with Siri)—can you add arbitrary commands to either?
EDIT: the quickest interaction I could get away with was, "Alexa, start a phone call with {name}". No back and forth. One statement and the echo simply confirms (which was optional).
- hammock 11y agoShe can initiate the call from anywhere, and based on the description given she still needs to go over to and pick up her phone to complete the interaction. I agree the ability to add arbitrary commands into Echo is a great feature, reminds me of ifttt quite a bit, which is usually a bit clunky yet very powerful.
- sisk 11y agoYeah, that's one quirk I wish didn't exist. If I could make the Echo work as a speakerphone of sorts, that'd be amazing. That's one of my two asks (ability to get access to the microphone), the other being server-side interaction initiation but I recognize the massive potential for abuse of both so I'm not holding my breath.
- JasonInSeattle 11y agoDo we even know if grandma has a smartphone?