After 2 years, what do you use your Echo for?

[jwlv]

It's been 2 years since I've owned an Echo. I now have 3 Echos, 6 Dots (v2), and 1 Tap.

I'd like to know what other people do with their Echoes now that they've owned it for a year or two. This is what I do most on my Echoes:

- Turn on/off lights & other devices (I have 14 Wemo switches)
- Get the weather
- Control my Nest thermostat (it's still very limited)
- Listen to music (Prime Music, TuneIn, I Heart Radio, Pandora)
- Set a timer for cooking
- Custom Alexa skills (One skill is for my business to get today's gross sales total. Another skill to check whether my garage is opened or closed)
- Get the location and operating hours of a business (e.g. When does Costco close?)
- An occasional calculation (Celsius to Fahrenheit, teaspoons to tablespoons, or other simple math)

[kevb]

I have 2 echos and 5 dots (2 more dots waiting to be implemented!) in two places, home and work. My list is much the same as yours-

-Home automation control (lights, thermostat, etc)
-Music, mostly iHeartradio and Tunein
-bedroom wakeup alarm
-weather

Internet music is great as we can't get many radio stations in clearly at our work location.

[fstbusa]

I don't use mine for many things but the few things I do they get used daily.

Interface for Home Automation system(main use)
Music(2nd most use)
Shopping List
Timers
Weather

I would gladly use it for more but most of the available 3rd party skills are useless IMO.

[coyote]

Can I answer, even though I'm only using it a few months?

- Shopping and to-do lists across multiple platforms and accounts using Todoist
- smarthome control: lights, locks, garage, etc
- home theater control
- timers
- alarms
- calendar entries
- weather updates
- sending texts and emails

There are plenty of other occasional uses such as playing music, dart out chart, generic info requests, etc. I don't bother with the "Easter eggs" or the junk 'skills'. I'm definitely getting my money's worth.

[malliekm]

I'll let you know in 19 months

So far, and not in any particular order...
Shopping list
calendar
time
weather
TASKR to find my phone
Ask My Buddy
news and tech briefings
timers and alarms
turn on/off lamp
music (altho if I don't start using it more I'm going to drop Music Unlimited)
calculations
Games: Akinator and 20 Questions

[mike27oct]

I considered saying, "I only occasionally ask it to tell me a joke, or a riddle and play Simon Says, and say good morning to it", but I won't!   

Most all things I do are listed above, although in addition, I frequently ask it to tell me the time as I walk by one of them, due to my poor vision of looking at a clock from a distance. Playing TuneIn music a lot, timer, shopping list, lights on/off, weather, etc.

[renegade600]

power my lights, tvs, computers.  get weather, news, using shopping list, timer, alarm, listen to old time radio, convert measurements. ask it stupid questions, find easter eggs when bored. set thermostat and get the time. 

most likely forgetting something but...

[scottrods]

I've only had my echo products (1 Echo, 1 Dot) for a very short while and am learning every week, how to utilize it more. Currently I use mine for:

A/V Control (This is the coolest of all of it to me)
Hue Lighting control
Music
Timers (I powder coat, so setting the timer for a cure process is excellent)
Other entertainment (Jokes, facts etc...)
Ambient sounds (Rain sounds, Ocean Sounds, Bird sounds)
Sleep timers (For TV and Music)
Calculator for simple math stuff to get quick answers that are accurate, instead of my guess off the top of my head
Tracking Amazon Order shipments

So far that's all I've done and do. I can only imagine how long this list will be next year or the next, as Echo updates and gets a little smarter and more decent skills arrive.

We live in exciting times... Period.

[mike27oct]

>>>   We live in exciting times... Period.

Agreed, although I am not putting Amazon's Alexa devices near the top of the list.  They are just cool gadgets, that's all.

The most exciting things happening are the discoveries being made during the past few decades about the cosmos and origins and make up of the universe.  Here we are, human life forms made of globs of stardust, figuring out how the universe works and how we fit in!

[scottrods]

I just read that Us Humans are made up of the same 56 elements that the Earth' crust is made of... So we're just Kinda... Dirt from what I figure...

I don't guess Alexa products are "TOP" of the heap... but I do find them to be advanced gadgets... that have great potential to be useful daily devices soon for many folks... couple this stuff with VR and there could be some pretty cool future gadgets too... Some even therapeutic and medically helpful for some.

[waybackdrm]

Well hasn't even been a year maybe since my mom got her Echo. Currently she uses for several things:

Play music
Shopping List
Play her Audio Book from Audible
Add Event
Check Shopping List
Check Events
Check the Time
Check the Weather

(My mom is Legally Blind) so this has been a big help to her, though there are still several things she would
like to be able to do with her Echo.

I myself have been given a Echo Tap that I use with my Samsung Tablet.

So far I use it with/for

Music
Weather check
IFTTT

[RonZ]

I use Alexa to play "rain" at night when I go to bed. Typically after invoking rain I ask for a sleep timer of ten minutes.  Typically I'm out by then. Alarm for wake up. Many lights controlled through Alexa and Wink hub. Usually I turn groups on and off i.e. Turn off downstairs. Turn on upstairs etc

[Jez]

2 Echo's and 2 Dots
► Radio-4 in the morning
► News
► Lights control
► Searching YouTube for great obscure tracks
► Bringing up Jukebox on touchscreen
► Developing and integrating
► Check spelling
► TV characters, what they starred in
► nursery rhymes when my granddaughter comes around, still singing them several hours later.