Unresponsive and cluttered
From a usability and aesthetics point of view, it’s a pretty cluttered app and you have to click here and there and there and there just to get where you need to go and then sometimes sub menus take you back up to the original menu, Etc. And it is slow. Very slow to respond. Tapping on a menu screen might take five or six seconds to load the next screen.
But the big issue that made me write a review is that the app has been unresponsive going back at least the last two or three updates. I submitted bug reports, but you typically don’t hear anything back from those. But it seems to be getting worse. And this is happening on all of my devices despite deleting the app or setting the app up on a brand new phone install. Wi-Fi or cellular, doesn’t matter. It just goes unresponsive. either the three little dots bounce around forever or you’re in the middle of editing a routine and the “finish“ button is grayed out. or something like that.
And can we stop auto refreshing this thing? I might be looking at my routines, tap one, and then back out only to be suddenly at the very top of the list again. Or I could be in the settings section and back out of a setting expecting to go back to my last location. But I’m taking again to the very top of the screen and then have to scroll down to figure out where I was.
But the big issue that made me write a review is that the app has been unresponsive going back at least the last two or three updates. I submitted bug reports, but you typically don’t hear anything back from those. But it seems to be getting worse. And this is happening on all of my devices despite deleting the app or setting the app up on a brand new phone install. Wi-Fi or cellular, doesn’t matter. It just goes unresponsive. either the three little dots bounce around forever or you’re in the middle of editing a routine and the “finish“ button is grayed out. or something like that.
And can we stop auto refreshing this thing? I might be looking at my routines, tap one, and then back out only to be suddenly at the very top of the list again. Or I could be in the settings section and back out of a setting expecting to go back to my last location. But I’m taking again to the very top of the screen and then have to scroll down to figure out where I was.
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Impossible to set up
This would be the most frustrating device to try and set up. We are returning the device to the shop as cannot get it to play local radio stations. Have read a lot of negative reviews for the same reason and just wish I had read them before purchasing
Alarm Setting!!!
I love setting my Alarm when needed. I tell Alexa to play Fan Noise or Sound. I Sleep Great soothing. I tell it to pause, and later on state resume. It goes right back to where I left off fan. I purchase a couple Alexa gifts for my family. Christmas time now every day my granddaughters. They tell it to play Disney music. They love frozen. I am about to give my nephew Alexa gift for his birthday today. The more I learn about Alexa it’s lovely. One thing I noticed it does not go by just your voice. My grand children can tell it what to do, or anyone else for that matter. When I go over to their place, I might play around and tell it to play something. It works, I thought that it would only go by the person who owns voice recognition. I will be purchasing more for myself. I don’t know how to turn off music. When my Am Alarm sounds, soon as I turn it off. The weather is given then music immediately comes on. I like the Weather, but need help to disable the Station. I wouldn’t mine the music playing, only if it’s a Choice of Station. I cannot even find the station that pops on. 🎼🤗🎶
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Getting too familiar
My echo dot is a device. A thing. I want it to do my bidding. I don’t want a close and personal relationship with it. For that I have real people. Alexa, without my bidding, has taken to addressing me by name and saying “good morning (my name)” and “good evening (my name)”. How, in any one of your gods names, do I switch this ridiculous feature off?
Another thing, orchestral compositions are not songs. Alexa insists they are. “Playing songs by Eric Satie” is a stupid statement when no singing is involved. And your playlists of orchestral works is woeful. Ask Alexa to play music by Satie or Liszt or Chopin and what you get is a few compositions, usually played by YouTubers rather than good soloists or orchestras, played on repeat. Many modern musicians, like Carlos Santana, recorded many tracks that are not songs. There are no words so they cannot be songs. Stop calling them songs.
Alexa is a handy thing with useful devices, but please, put it in its place. It isn’t sentient.
Another thing, orchestral compositions are not songs. Alexa insists they are. “Playing songs by Eric Satie” is a stupid statement when no singing is involved. And your playlists of orchestral works is woeful. Ask Alexa to play music by Satie or Liszt or Chopin and what you get is a few compositions, usually played by YouTubers rather than good soloists or orchestras, played on repeat. Many modern musicians, like Carlos Santana, recorded many tracks that are not songs. There are no words so they cannot be songs. Stop calling them songs.
Alexa is a handy thing with useful devices, but please, put it in its place. It isn’t sentient.
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Annoying
We can’t get her to work as effectively as she did in the past 2 years we’ve purchased several products over the years and have incorporated Alexa around the home and in varies aspects of our lives. Especially once I was diagnosed with cancer back in 2018. She was a big help. Our family depends on her for many things including my medical treatment plans, helping with the kids stay on task, & the day to day functions.
These past few months she doesn’t understand task, she doesn’t announce every requested announcement. She sounds muffled on various devices around the home on drop ins. When one person is using her in a room near by, she’s in listing mode to where it’s interfering with the other room’s listening experience. There are too many things to list on this review and I’m trying to stay the course but I don’t know why the quality has declined, but I’m always singing her praise.
As we invest more and more into Alexa, it’s like we are punished for incorporating her around the house because the only way to stream music on separate devices at a time is to pay almost $20 for a service plan. That is insane! For example, if any of my 3 kids are in their individual rooms listening, only one can play music. Right now my 6 year old is listening to night time lullabies in his room, nobody else can play music.
These past few months she doesn’t understand task, she doesn’t announce every requested announcement. She sounds muffled on various devices around the home on drop ins. When one person is using her in a room near by, she’s in listing mode to where it’s interfering with the other room’s listening experience. There are too many things to list on this review and I’m trying to stay the course but I don’t know why the quality has declined, but I’m always singing her praise.
As we invest more and more into Alexa, it’s like we are punished for incorporating her around the house because the only way to stream music on separate devices at a time is to pay almost $20 for a service plan. That is insane! For example, if any of my 3 kids are in their individual rooms listening, only one can play music. Right now my 6 year old is listening to night time lullabies in his room, nobody else can play music.
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Too much LAG TIME w/video cam
Can be complicated at times. Too hard to find specific things. It’s stating that my RING VIDEO DOOR BELL PRO is UNSUPPORTED!!!👿👿 no point in having a camera if it’s not going to be supported on all devices! You have to make sure that yr routines don’t overlap. So unless you set a timer you’ll wonder why things aren’t working. You cannot always have a custom setting!🤷🏽♀️💆🏽♀️ instead you have to setup timers! My cam video wouldn’t pop up bc of overlapping routines! Clear instructions on the “use” of Alexa would be very helpful. I had learn more about Alexa’s idiosyncrasies by trial & error. virtually useless at times (won’t take me to where I want but gives me info fm the web…not what I wanted! A “LOT” of LAG TIME when bringing up video cam or detecting ppl. The scene has been missed and ppl are already gone or at my door! Video cam shld override all else! One command or click and I shld be able to view my camera immed. Shld have an option to add my device even if it’s not listed..but, if it can’t find it…u can’t add it…maybe in time we’ll both get better…sheesh NOT ABLE TO DELETE profiles unless you go onto Amazon…why!🤷🏽♀️💆🏽♀️Need more control over motion sensitivity. Can be a wonderful tool if the lag time were much faster! When and if it works correctly or you figure out yr issues; it’s awesome that’s if you can figure it out.
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Good app
The app is good .. recently I had an issue where th the photo display it said there was 8 photos but they are not showing up in the app and cannot remove them … this is something that has happened to me and will work out how to fix it but if it’s happened before with other people ( heads up)
The slideshow option is good and would love to see more stuff being added … often these things fix themselves over time so if this happens again it the app might need to be checked I’m still learning how to use the led screen and I have had it sing to me and it’s got quite a character .. it’s like I have a robot companion … your doing good just needs to keep an eye out in case of any issues which is cool 😁 maybe one day someone could beatbox with Alexa… I think Alex needs a friend apart from the user.. keep making more products 😁 cheers Jazzy
The slideshow option is good and would love to see more stuff being added … often these things fix themselves over time so if this happens again it the app might need to be checked I’m still learning how to use the led screen and I have had it sing to me and it’s got quite a character .. it’s like I have a robot companion … your doing good just needs to keep an eye out in case of any issues which is cool 😁 maybe one day someone could beatbox with Alexa… I think Alex needs a friend apart from the user.. keep making more products 😁 cheers Jazzy
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Reader assist
Please rollback whatever you tried to fix with the reader assist to the previous version from early July 2023. It no longer works well and no longer continues to work even when deleting the app and re-downloading multiple times. It appears under play option at first when newly downloaded then at some point within minutes- an hour the play option in the app completely disappears (the triangle down the bottom). Then you can ask Alexa to read a specific kindle book and this doesn’t always work and is extremely frustrating… but you can’t manually go in and select the kindle books through the alexa app like you normally can in reader assist. Tried going through the help desk a few times but they couldn’t help. It’s pretty much the main thing I need the app for and rely on it heavily. Thank you
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Poor Bluetooth Quality Connectivity
I have an Echo speaker which is excellent in terms of sound quality and integration for music streaming via wi-fi connectivity. However, when using Bluetooth to stream my own music collection from my iPhone Music app playlists then things aren't so good. There is sound volume and quality degradation that cannot go unnoticed. There are also noticeable noise conflicts if both the Alexa app and the apple Music app are open. Why would one need both apps open? Well, Alexa would be used to adjust the otherwise very poor and low volume for the music being played via the Music app. When you close down the Music app and revert back to Alexa streaming via wi-fi, Alexa does not adjust the volume down resulting in a "deafening" experience. In summary, Alexa works well for wi-fi streaming but the connectivity for streaming via Bluetooth is very poor.
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Alexa
The problem is me I’m trying to put the time to 12 hours like am and pm. Th time and date is somehow shrunk so I can’t really see it I don’t use it much but those and my photos are important so I can’t really follow what has happened.
