Thanksgiving, 2018 I bought (what I thought) just a cheap 55" tv. Turned out to be a fire tv and once I found out that I could control the tv by voice with just a $25 dot I became hooked. Filled my whole house with echos of every sort, fire tablets, blink & ring cameras, smart plugs/switches & bulbs, and more fire tv's.
I was like a kid at Christmastime filled with wonder and excitement anticipating each new update and feature. I relentlessly read and watched anything I could find to learn more.
Then came 2021.
We were introduced to "by the way". When it first started it was at least relevant. I asked to set a timer and the echo told me that I could now have it sound off on all my echos. Now that was helpful. Now it's just a bunch of garbage with no relevance and no option to disable.
Then came "alexa for your day". That alone had me start looking at Google and Apple devices. I could go on about that irritation forever and I have at Amazons worthless forum that I have since given up on.
In February the fire tv/echo integration to power on/off tvs broke. It's still broken 10 months later.
In March the black screen/no screen problems started with the shows. Then the clocks broke if you choose one with a cycling background. Guess what, that too is still broken.
Slideshow photos that used to serve as background screens for the weather, upcoming reminders, and calendar just disappeared only to be replaced by some random screen, completely interrupting the flow of pictures as the rotation went around.
Also to change, and not for the better was the music controls on the show 5. The large, easy to use play/pause, previous & next were replaced with tiny buttons at the bottom of the screen that I need my reading glasses to see. When listening to I Heart Radio the song title & artist was displayed, not anymore. Amazon has also forced commercials both at the beginning and in the middle of iheartradio streams causing me to change my wake up alarm music. If I wanted to wake up to a commercial I would just go back to my old clock radio.
Then the alarms on the show 5's started not working or self snoozing. Still broken.
Next to break was 50% of my voice commands to turn something on or off. I was constantly met with a response of "you don't have any connected vehicles" or "doesn't support that".
You would think that Amazon would be working overtime to repair not only their software/firmware but also their reputation. Instead they have doubled down on their stupidity, increasing the frequency of "by the ways" and constantly adding more garbage screens to the shows. They are always turned on by default if they even include a toggle. I'm already upset enough that I've had to set my shows to clock only in a attempt to limit the "alexa for your day" garbage but every time I see my screen rotate I grow more angry since I then know that they added more junk overnight and I have to go search home content for the off button.
Now they have taken away email and limited the unlimited calling to 10 contacts? It has become a sick, slow painful death.
Amazon has taken something that used to be a joy and turned it into something that I have come to hate at times.
Last Christmas when amazon introduced group calling I was so happy with my show 8 that I gave one to every member of my family. Now, sadly I'm embarrassed that I unleashed the aggravation that the shows have become on them.
Amazon must be out of their mind if they think that any of us will ever buy the show 10 or show 15 knowing what we know now. Their attempted forced interaction with the devices through "BTW", IMDB ads, "AFYD" and the never ending "try this" has actually driven me further away. I no longer shop on amazon.com via my show devices for anything. Even interacting with them for trivia and games has come to an abrupt halt. I no longer leave positive reviews and if anyone asks my opinion on which ecosystem to buy into, I'm brutally honest with them.
Amazon has left me no choice but to look elsewhere and that's what I have reluctantly done. In the last 2 weeks I have bought 2 of the nest hubs to replace my show 5's. For now, the show 8 stays on the kitchen counter for the Ring doorbell. I also have a routine triggered by a button that turns on the kitchen lights with a custom command. That automatically brings up the brightness control for the lights on the shows screen that I can then adjust quickly & easily.
All of the above being said, none of my sensors, buttons, or zigbee devices will work with the google hubs. Neither will my Ring doorbell. I'm also quite invested in whole house audio with the echo link and echo studios scattered throughout my home. So for now going forward it will be non-screen echos for voice control & audio playback and google hub devices for most screen controls, alarm clock, etc.
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