List of things this system needs

[billgreenwood]

Ability to control / interact with a mobile phone.
Why is this not a standard function, they could make an accompanying app to control the phone or AmazonOS?
Alerts / Answer calls. Silence Echo when answering calls. Allow Echo to be used as a hands-free device to make calls and send / read received messages.

When there is more than one profile on the system;
Allow the user to leave voice notes / messages on the system for another user. Flash the light ring to alert the user. Ability to send messages to other Echo / Dot devices on your network.
Allow separate shopping and to-do lists.


Recognise voices.
Along with multiple profiles, it would be great if Echo recognised your voice.


UK Voice training.
Mentioned this in another post - needs sorting quickly

Timed /regular Silent mode

Ability to tell you what volume setting it is on.

Equalise sound levels.
Sometimes volume levels for some things / flash briefings are much louder / quieter than others.


Set volume levels for different times of day




These would have been the things I'd love to have seen on launch.



b.

[billgreenwood]

To add to the list


Interaction timings
It would also be great to be able to lengthen the time Alexa listens to you, before switching off. I'm sure in the early days people will hesitate as they learn to interact with these voice interactive command systems. For me, sometimes the Echo switches off listening (the blue ring) when it thinks i'm finished.


Ability to lose the Skills phrase / learn required action.

It would be great if the Echo could learn usual commands and we could do without having to remember the Skills word to use; for example.

TuneIn is already installed, strangely though TuneIn cannot play Talksport (i noticed this when trying to listen to the footie last week). It plays Talksport2. Talksport IS available on TuneIn but the Echo cant find it. Alexa, play Talksport. "playing talksport2 on TuneIn"

You don't know how muchI want to shout at you, you ..... you ..... grrrrrr, Us early adopters!

So I installed the Radioplayer skill - this is so much better and I wish this could be the default.
Alexa ask Radioplayer to play Talksport. No problem mate, I'll run along, grab the feed and you can listen to your team get smashed by three men and a dog (who's in goal).

IT would be cool to just have Echo learn these usual commands and I wouldn't have to "Ask Radioplayer".

This sort of happens with the Yonomi skill. This uses the phrases "turn on" and "turn off"

So I make a Yonomi Activity to turn on my tv. This runs the Yonomi TV activity, which is asking Harmony hub to turn on the TV. This is using a phrase, but nobody needs to remember that it's Yonomi doing the grunt work in the background.  Alexa turn on TV. It works so much better this way.

[Kerthump]

To add to the list

Allow alarms to play music or a prefered Radio Station
Yes I know there is a hack using a mobile phone, but that's not always viable.

Intercom
This could be very useful for elderly people, or in a large home.

[Snafs]

Without question I want, and I expected push notifications.

I wish to come home and say "Alexa, remind me to phone bob at 10pm tonight"

Then at 10pm, or perhaps a pre-set amount of time beforehand. Alexa wakes up and says something like.

"This is your reminder to phone Bob at 10pm"

So it speaks back the phrase you told it, at the time, or just before you requested.

Seems a pretty obvious thing it should do.

I mean if you were speaking to a human in the house, and you asked to be reminded to phone bob at 10, they would do this very same thing.

[billgreenwood]

Without question I want, and I expected push notifications.

I wish to come home and say "Alexa, remind me to phone bob at 10pm tonight"

Then at 10pm, or perhaps a pre-set amount of time beforehand. Alexa wakes up and says something like.

"This is your reminder to phone Bob at 10pm"

So it speaks back the phrase you told it, at the time, or just before you requested.

Seems a pretty obvious thing it should do.

I mean if you were speaking to a human in the house, and you asked to be reminded to phone bob at 10, they would do this very same thing.

This would be a great feature. I wanted to set a reminder today.

This is a really helpful basic function that Amazon should add.

This machine has been out a few years now and it doesn't do this!!!!!!!

How often do Amazon actually update this device and add functions?

B

[Snafs]

Without question I want, and I expected push notifications.

I wish to come home and say "Alexa, remind me to phone bob at 10pm tonight"

Then at 10pm, or perhaps a pre-set amount of time beforehand. Alexa wakes up and says something like.

"This is your reminder to phone Bob at 10pm"

So it speaks back the phrase you told it, at the time, or just before you requested.

Seems a pretty obvious thing it should do.

I mean if you were speaking to a human in the house, and you asked to be reminded to phone bob at 10, they would do this very same thing.

This would be a great feature. I wanted to set a reminder today.

This is a really helpful basic function that Amazon should add.

This machine has been out a few years now and it doesn't do this!!!!!!!

How often do Amazon actually update this device and add functions?

B

Yes, it's exactly the type of function I assumed the Echo would simply do, before I found out, upon UK Launch it could not do so.

To me it just seemed such an obvious requirement that almost everyone would find incredibly useful.
You want to be reminded of something at a certain time, you ask it to remind you and it does.
All you can do is set an alarm and hope you remember what the alarm means when it goes off.

Then again, I would have thought a clock/radio function was a simple obvious thing it would do, and it does not do that either.

I may be wrong here, but part of me thinks Amazon have just been taking it easy for 2 years, as they have had zero competition, and when you are the only one in the market there is little pressure to get things done quick.
I appreciate a lot had been done, but some basics are still not, and this is 2 years on.

As much as I love my Echo, if they don't pick up their speed on things like this, the Google home could almost destroy the 2 year lead time they had.
It's not THAT far behind now, and it's only been out a week.
Just think what the Google Home might be able to do after it's had 2 years.

I do love the Echo and home this is going to spur Amazon into quicker improvements.

[DParker]

This machine has been out a few years now and it doesn't do this!!!!!!!

The Echo has been out for 2 years, not "a few".  And the feature is allegedly in the works.  It's not as simple a thing to do properly as you might think.
 

How often do Amazon actually update this device and add functions?

Fairly often, actually...especially in the area of integration with other vendors' systems.

[billgreenwood]

So it's been out 2 years. Well that's enough time for the mighty Amazon to really get this system in a decent place.

Well I have the Echo and two Dots and 6 weeks on I think it's pretty crap for a system that's had two years on the market. If it came out yesterday then I'd say "OK Amazon" { you like that ha ha }

But it seriously lacks stuff ......

No voice (recorded) reminders. Where are the reminders.

No ability to set your own alarm. At least make it a glorified alarm clock

It can't add up more than a two sequence number. What is 2 + 2 + 2?

Skills are like .... what keyword do I have to remember now. Madness ..... just do it for me!

It cannot make calls .... come on ... this is a feature people would want. Hands free front end to a phone.

It does not balance sound levels. This is a must if it receiving audio from different sources (BBC / SKY / Guardian)

No IFTTT for UK

No UK voice training.

It cant google stuff for you (or BING stuff).

The Dots constantly drop WiFi. Tunein drops out often.

Integration with some services is fiddly ...
I admit I do need to sit down with it and do some better integration with Yonomi and Harmony.


I like the Echo, but it needs work and fast.
I'll get the Google offering when it's out in the UK. I have a feeling that unless Amazon do some serious upgrades here, that the Google device, ugly that it is, might kill this off.

b.

[DParker]

So it's been out 2 years. Well that's enough time for the mighty Amazon to really get this system in a decent place.

Well I have the Echo and two Dots and 6 weeks on I think it's pretty crap for a system that's had two years on the market.

Unfortunately, your conclusion appears to be based on at least some incorrect info/assumptions.

No voice (recorded) reminders. Where are the reminders.

I already spoke to the issue of push notifications.

No ability to set your own alarm. At least make it a glorified alarm clock

What?  Of course you can set alarms....multiple of them, in fact.

It can't add up more than a two sequence number. What is 2 + 2 + 2?

Yes, it can.  In fact I just posed your example query to Alexa and got this response:  "Two plus two plus two is equal to six."

No IFTTT for UK

That's an issue that BOTH Amazon and IFTTT are working on addressing.  Amazon can't enable that by itself.

[dhanjel]

Only used it for a couple of hours so far, and I like it. But already miss  a couple of things. A few is understandable, since I live outside US/UK.

- Multiple timers
- Sonos integration
- 24 hour clock
- Integration with Google Keep for shopping lists
- Allowing all adresses in the world for weather and timezone
- IFTTT integration not limited to US only (and be able to post a HTTP Get request when an alarm is triggered)

[DParker]

Only used it for a couple of hours so far, and I like it. But already miss  a couple of things. A few is understandable, since I live outside US/UK.

Some of your items (like IFTTT and weather) are due to issues beyond Amazon's control.  That said...

- Multiple timers

Echo/Alexa does support multiple timers (and alarms).  I use that feature quite often, in fact.

- Sonos integration

Define "integration".  Do you have an Echo, a Dot or a Tap?

[AlanH]

Sonos integration is coming next year.
http://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2016/8/30/12709452/sonos-amazon-alexa-announced

[dhanjel]

Only used it for a couple of hours so far, and I like it. But already miss  a couple of things. A few is understandable, since I live outside US/UK.

Some of your items (like IFTTT and weather) are due to issues beyond Amazon's control.  That said...

- Multiple timers

Echo/Alexa does support multiple timers (and alarms).  I use that feature quite often, in fact.

- Sonos integration

Define "integration".  Do you have an Echo, a Dot or a Tap?

Not to sound like a bitter old man, but to say that it is beyond their control sounds like pure lies. There are numerous free and / or payed weather services they can use. And I don´t see any reason why IFTTT or anyone else would prevent them from using it world wide.

About the timers, nice! Did not know that. But you can´t name them, right? To know which one is one? I think the Google Home can use something like "Set a timer for 8 minutes for boiling eggs".

Nice that Sonos integration is coming (I use a dot right now. I have ceiling speakers in all rooms connected to Sonos, so no real use of the speaker model. And to be honest, I´m quite suprised about the quality of the sepaker in the small dot)

[Graeme]

Apple Music
U.K. Fitbit
Sonos

[AlanH]

Sonos integration is coming next year.
http://press-us.sonos.com/134980-sonos-with-partners-and-industry-leaders-ushers-in-new-era-of-connected-home-listening