I love my Echo Dots, but...

[sirrah]

I love my Echo Dots, but I find the system of having to invoke skills very cumbersome, perplexing and frustrating. 

Why do I need to say, “Ask Hive to boost the heating”, whereas I only need say, “turn on the lounge light” (which is also on Hive)?  And what about, “Ask Pollen count for the pollen count”!  I can ask, “Alexa, what is the current tube status” without invoking the Tube Info skill or, “what is the weather forecast for tomorrow” and ”What’s on TV tonight?” without having to say, “Ask TV Guide” first.

There may be a reason for this but, it is illogical and inconsistent.  Why can’t I just ask for what I want without the invocation phrase, some of which are difficult to remember as well as the correct words for the action I want Alexa to perform. And some are ridiculous or repetitive as in the pollen count example above.   Then there are those like Jurassic Bark where I am told to say, “Ask Jurassic Bark to bark”, but it works perfectly well if I just ask Alexa to bark like a dog.

OK, so maybe Alexa needs to be steered in the right direction.  So, how about allowing the Alexa app to keep a list of default skills.  Then, when I ask for something to do with my heating, it already knows that I only have one heating system and connects to Hive or nest or whatever.  I also only have one robot carpet cleaner, so if I set Dyson as the default carpet cleaning skill, I would only have to say, “Start cleaning the carpets” instead of “Ask Dyson to start cleaning”.

Just a thought.

[asianrocker]

You have to do the ask command part if you have not enabled the skills yet I think. But once you enabled it, you don't have to do that.

I don't use skills so not sure. Just looked at Hive on skills list. The sample command does not have the ask part.

So maybe you are just confused how you use your hive.

I don't have a hive so hopefully a hive user can chime in about this.

[renegade600]

it is really about the devices you buy.  I just tell alexa to set temperature to soso thats it.   I dont see a need to use hive and not even sure what it is. 

most skills are worthless or have been around since before alexa could do similar commands.  it is just that alexa cannot do everything so skills are needed and alexa needed a way to distinguish one skill from another similar skill.  It is like being in a room full of people and ask for something from someone across the room and not specifying who you are asking.

Like you, it is hard for me to remember the specific commands for some skills so I really don't use them.  I am careful about the devices I buy so I won't have to use them.