While those devices are far from perfect they are an evolutionary step in how people are able to interact with technology.
My mother in law does not use a computer or smartphone at all, but she loves to use the Echo because it provides a familiar interface (speech) to services she would use (music, weather, casual information search).
And interacting with voice assistants is a two way street in my opinion. They will get better at understanding what we want and we will adapt to phrase our questions in a way the software understands.
And while I doubt us folks would use a voice assistant to query a solution for an error message on stackoverflow it still provides a convenient way to control music, lights, shutters while our hands are occupied in other ways (cooking, drawing, crafting, ...)
> We have an Echo and to this day we haven't found any use for it.
I briefly played with the webhook in ifttt and I think the "serverless" aws or Google Cloud could use this as a custom dash button. Instead of going to a dash button and pressing it if you run out of tide, you simply say "echo, trigger detergent" or I'm thinking with custom programming, "echo, trigger [predefined post request here that starts a series of actions]"
It also supports youbsaying Alexa order tide, or Alexa reorder tide. And she will ask you if you want to buy the most recent tide product you purchased again.
I'm the same as IgorPartola, I use it for kitchen timers, music and smart home controls, but I've also written a few skills so it can play movies/shows on my Chromecast, tell me my last bank transaction, etc etc. Those are pretty useful, except the Dot fails to recognize my longer sentences way too often. Sometimes it'll even recognize the skill I want to launch but not the rest of it.
You seem like the person to ask, so... did you write a "Stavros Home" skill (to borrow from your SN) which can do all of that centrally, or multiple skills?
The problem I'm finding is I can train myself to remember about 5 skill names that can each do one or two things, but thats about it. I'm wondering when I write my own, if i should just have a central skill for my house. Also how did you link into the Chromecast? I have a chromecast buried in my Vizio Smartcast TV and i'm wondering how i can link it in.
I guess that depends where the button is located. If you are sitting down on your couch and forgot to turn off the light it definitely beats standing up and walkin back to the door.
If the switch is within reach anyway then I totally agree that a voice command is more cumbersome than just hitting the switch
Decent switches are relatively quick. It's not instant, but in my house close enough that I open the door, say "Alexa turn on the lights" and lights turn on before I close the door behind me.
My mother in law does not use a computer or smartphone at all, but she loves to use the Echo because it provides a familiar interface (speech) to services she would use (music, weather, casual information search).
And interacting with voice assistants is a two way street in my opinion. They will get better at understanding what we want and we will adapt to phrase our questions in a way the software understands.
And while I doubt us folks would use a voice assistant to query a solution for an error message on stackoverflow it still provides a convenient way to control music, lights, shutters while our hands are occupied in other ways (cooking, drawing, crafting, ...)