Echo Connect Discussion

[Nosugrof]

I just bought two Echo Plus units and two Echo Connect units. One set is for my mom and one set is for me to test with. The idea is I can tie the Connect into her land line and she can make calls by simply naming who she wants to call. The Connect also supports 911 calls so this becomes a candidate for replacing her life alert.

I pre-ordered the Connect units and they arrived over the weekend. The first thing I discovered is the installation won't work from the web interface. When you try to add a new device Echo Connect isn't an option. I used the Alexa app on my Android and it completed with out too much trouble. I tried to make a call which connected fine but the recipient on the other end could barely hear me. I held the Echo Plus ~6 inches from my face and spoke very loud and the situation improved. I called Amazon support for guidance but the device is so new they don't have much information to help with trouble shooting. They did agree to send a replacement device which may remediate the issue. This is such a basic requirement I can't believe this could be a real defect in the design so hopefully the replacement will fix this problem.

When I ordered the Connect all it said I needed was a land line and a compatible Echo device. Now that I'm getting into the products it's looking like a smart phone may also be required. I couldn't complete the set up without it and now I'm not seeing anywhere to manage contacts. My mom is a little older and I'm concerned a smart phone may be a little too technical for her. It also adds a fair amount to the cost of the solution. I'm hopeful this is a platform I can build on to simplify her life a bit:
 - Ease of making phone calls.
 - Ease of managing thermostat, lights, etc.
 - Simplify her television access.

If the Echo product managers are following these threads I hope they pick up on the idea that this is a huge market opportunity. I'm sure there are a lot of families that would very likely be happy to set this up for their parents.

I'm curious to hear if anyone else is exploring this technology to fit this use case and what their experiences have been.

One other point although it's a bit off topic. I also picked up the Amazon Fire TV stick thinking I could simplify television access and maybe avoid having to manage four different remote controls to watch TV. This is really tough for my mom to keep straight. Crud, I have a masters in computer science and I struggle with managing all the remotes for watching TV. I still have a lot of research and testing to do in this area but if this works it will be a huge relief for her and pretty cool for me too.

[scottrods]

Buy and set up the cheapest Smart phone you can to set up the Mom's situation, and set up contacts in that phone for HER... if you try and do it with your phone... things may not go so well. Once the system is set up and amazon recognizes the account and all that it entails... let the pay per month phone lapse and use the Amazon account. does your mother have internet at all? If so you'll be fine with that once set up and running. Provided no passwords are out with the phone lapse... it should be all good. The connect may be suited to the set up as well once you establish an account. Cell phone Shouldn't have any bearing on anything after set up, as long as you have access to internet settings on the Amazon.Alexa you should be golden. I recommend Straight talk (Walmart) and their cheapest smart phone available. They're usually some crappy branded piece that will work for this stuff as far as setting up Echos. If you choose to use the Echos for other things such as lighting or AV items, thermostat... may want to get into a bit nicer phone and keep it on a month to month contract at least... some are pretty cheap.

[Ga20646]

Can you have incoming calls only ring on select devices? I don’t want incoming calls to ring on the echo dots in my kids room.

[Jasg]

I bought an Echo Connect for my nearly blind mother so that she could make and receive calls via voice prompts. 

She has no smart phone (cannot even see to use one), so the lack of a web or app interface that would allow me to maintain her contacts makes the Connect useless for her.

How can Amazon assume that everyone has a smartphone?

FAIL

[jwlv]

How can Amazon assume that everyone has a smartphone?

The same way Amazon assumes everyone has a broadband internet connection.

[Paxton]

I had the same question about individual devices and called Amazon CS, which didn't know the answer.   But I think you can use the Alexa app to turn on DO NOT DISTURB for certain devices so they don't get the call notifications.

[renegade600]

I bought an Echo Connect for my nearly blind mother so that she could make and receive calls via voice prompts. 

She has no smart phone (cannot even see to use one), so the lack of a web or app interface that would allow me to maintain her contacts makes the Connect useless for her.

How can Amazon assume that everyone has a smartphone?

FAIL

what I see is someone did not do their homework.  amazon did not fail.   

[Jasg]

I bought an Echo Connect for my nearly blind mother so that she could make and receive calls via voice prompts. 

She has no smart phone (cannot even see to use one), so the lack of a web or app interface that would allow me to maintain her contacts makes the Connect useless for her.

How can Amazon assume that everyone has a smartphone?

FAIL

what I see is someone did not do their homework.  amazon did not fail.

They have failed to meet the needs of a market segment (vision impaired) that would benefit greatly from Echo assistive technology.
They have failed by assuming that everyone will agree to give them their entire contacts list, when a simple phone book would suffice. 

[asianrocker]

They have failed to meet the needs of a market segment (vision impaired) that would benefit greatly from Echo assistive technology.
They have failed by assuming that everyone will agree to give them their entire contacts list, when a simple phone book would suffice.

I fail to see your logic here. I am not vision impaired and that is why I don't even use call/text feature. And honestly this connect would be a waste of my money and time. I am getting rid of my landline actually.

But I believe this is good for seniors and handicapped people. Why would you not agree to sync your contact list? It is the only way it can make your life easier. You would rather go to phone book all the time? And actually who still uses phone book when you can ask an AI the phone number? With or without this connect device.

By the way, I have not asked an AI for a phone number yet but tried it just now on Cortana and Alexa. They both said the phone number of the target store nearest me. Cortana is better, it showed the phone number on my laptop screen.

I just said - AI, target phone number.

Ok GA, pulled up list of target phone numbers near me.

[Jasg]

When I said phone book, I meant a simple phone book list in the app.  Just names and numbers.

I hesitate to share my entire contacts list with email, birthdays, home addresses, business info etc. when all that is needed by Echo are the phone numbers.

I understand the convenience from the Amazon coders point of view but a way to view and edit the phone information can't be that hard.  It is too opaque right now and mandates the use of a smart phone

[jwlv]

What you are implying is like saying Huffy (bicycle manufacturer) failed to meet the needs of a market segment (vision impaired). It's quite obvious that the vision impaired market is not their target audience. But it does come in handy for some folks who happen to be in that situation. More power to them for taking advantage of technologies they can benefit from.

Just 10 years ago, I played around with a $6000 hunk of junk made specifically for the vision impaired that I was setting up for a friend. This hunk of junk was something that was approved by the FDA. After hours and hours of voice training, it barely recognized a few words. It was completely useless and caused more frustration for my friend. Being a hardware and software guy, I ended up rigging up a Windows XP computer with Dragon Dictate and my own custom software and X10's to do the things she needed. Basically I had Dragon Dictate transcribe voice to text into a text box in my custom software which parsed the text to determine what needs to be done. Output was thru the X10 RS232 adapter to control other devices.

Forward to the present. A $29 device (Echo Dot) can do so much more with accuracy that's far greater than even the most expensive technology 10 years ago. Apple made Siri several years before Amazon was even known to be working with natural language processing. If anyone was to be dumped on, it's Apple for sitting on Siri for so many years and not doing more with it. Google had voice and natural language technology from around 2002. Anyone remember the free 411 (I think it was 800-goog-411)? That was Google collecting voice data for analysis which is probably the basis for various Google technologies including Google Assistant. Amazon's Alexa has only been available for 2 years.

[jwlv]

When I said phone book, I meant a simple phone book list in the app.  Just names and numbers.

I agree with you on this. It shouldn't be an All-or-Nothing choice. It should be an option to share your entire contact list or just enter contacts one by one manually within the Alexa app, with no access to your phone's contact list. 

[Nosugrof]

I think there are at least a couple of valid points raised here justifying adding a simple contact list in the web app.
 - privacy: not everyone wants to expose their full contact list to Echo. This is still pretty new stuff and a breach would be unpleasant for all stakeholders. Echo doesn't even need full contact details for making calls so limiting the access aligns with security best practices.
 - market penetration: lots of people, especially seniors are using flip phones or just land lines but would benefit greatly from this technology. Providing a simple contact list in the app bridges the technology to this market segment.

Being able to add contacts with a voice command similar to adding an item to my shopping list would be very cool. I'll be interested to see how this evolves.

[Jasg]

Has anyone tried two Echo Connects? 

Is there a way to associate some Echos with a given landline?

Even with just one landline, is there a way to block an Echo from Incoming calls other than 'Do not Disturb'?  We have several Echos but only one is used for phone calls.  DND keeps the others from being used as intercoms

[renegade600]

I bought an Echo Connect for my nearly blind mother so that she could make and receive calls via voice prompts. 

She has no smart phone (cannot even see to use one), so the lack of a web or app interface that would allow me to maintain her contacts makes the Connect useless for her.

How can Amazon assume that everyone has a smartphone?

FAIL

what I see is someone did not do their homework.  amazon did not fail.

They have failed to meet the needs of a market segment (vision impaired) that would benefit greatly from Echo assistive technology.
They have failed by assuming that everyone will agree to give them their entire contacts list, when a simple phone book would suffice. 

based on this post, it proves you did not do your homework.  amazon did not fail, you did.  you do not need a smartphone, you do not need to provide your contact list, there are ways around everything you complained about.