Using calendar for mother with memory problems

[Phillippa]

Hello

Omam just setting up Alexa to try and help my mum with her memory problems. I have put a number of events in the calendar including birthdays and appointments. I have however not been able work out how to get Alexa to respond to questions such as when is my next hospital appointment or when is someone’s birthday. It will tell me the next event but not respond to a particular question. Am I expecting it to do something that it’s not capable of?

[renegade600]

exactly what country are you in?   some features may not work depending on the country. 

[Phillippa]

I am in uk

[MartinB999]

Hi Phillippa
I'm in the UK and haven't been able to get this working despite talking to the helpdesk. I ask it when is X's birthday, or when is my car service due etc, all of which are in my calendar, but it cannot give me an answer. Each time I just get ..... the next events in your calendar are....... etc etc..... similar to your experiences.
I'm not sure that the device can actually filter this information to date despite the helpdesk telling me that it "should" be able to.

[Phillippa]

Thanks Martin. That’s really frustrating as it was one of the reasons for purchasing it. Seems ridicuous that it can’t do that when Siri can do it on my phone. Maybe I should have done more research!

[AlanH]

UK too. I don’t think the Alexa AI is advanced enough yet to understand calendar entries beyond reading them out as they’re written. I would imagine that the syntax for entries would need to follow agreed rules. For example, is “Mum birthday” the same as “Mum’s birthday” and the same as “Birthday - Mum”. “Hospital appointment” could also be just “Hospital” or “Appointment - hospital”.
I’m sure Alexa will get there, but not just yet!

[MartinB999]

Just on a side note Phillippa, I bought a Google mini yesterday, synched it and indeed it CAN filter such information it seems. I've tried it a few times with things that were historical in my diary and things for the future and it seems to be doing well finding things. It can also make free phone calls to mobiles and landlines.
I'm not suggesting that you buy a Google mini but simply the fact that the technology exists for such filtering so I think Alexa will catch up - hopefully before too long. A bit like phone calling on the Alexa, Google Home/Mini have had that for quite some time now but Alexa not - it's coming soon.......... so they keep telling us!