Home Mini and Echo/Alexa

[Noctaire]

I have an Echo Plus and several Echo Dots already.  I decided to add the new Nest Hello doorbell to my home and buying it on preorder, they give you a free Home Mini.

Honestly - I have no ide what I’ll do with it, but it was a freebie so can’t say no.   

Does anyone have one setup amongst their existing Exho ecosystem?  Anything I can do with it, maybe integrate it with the Echo setup in some way...?

[renegade600]

you could always use it as a backup if amazons cloud service goes down. 

[Noctaire]

I suppose that’s true.  I might just give it to the in laws or some such too.  I really don’t need two smart speaker ecosystems going here....

[malliekm]

I suppose that’s true.  I might just give it to the in laws or some such too.  I really don’t need two smart speaker ecosystems going here....

Your in-laws will love it!

[renegade600]

I suppose that’s true.  I might just give it to the in laws or some such too.  I really don’t need two smart speaker ecosystems going here....

I guess it really depends on your needs.  it is not that you need two ecosystems.  just one for a backup would do and keep it in the main room .   it is a pain when it amazon does have hiccups.  you either have to use specific apps for the devices or manually turn things on and off then make sure everything is reset.  Just last week amazon had issues or was it the week before.  I forget.  fortunately I slept through it.   google does have some advantages over amazon like the ability to answer questions and more stores you can shop at online. 

though I give malliekm (bout to come clean) a hard time about google home, I have had one since last may.  I got a second one in Dec when they were cheap.  I got them for a backup and almost never use them.    In other words, I have two gh and three echos.    I have had to use them a couple of times when amazon cloud was down.  they are also good to troubleshoot your smart devices.   If it works with gh, then the problem is with amazon.   If the problem is with both amazon and gh, then it is a problem with the device. 

so there are valid reasons to have both. 

[malliekm]

>>though I give malliekm (bout to come clean) a hard time about google home, I have had one since last may. <<

Now that you've completed 2 of the 3 steps (buying the GHMs and admitting to it) now all  you need to do is use them
I admit I use my Alexa Dot nearly every day and/or night.  It's in my bathroom and I usually listen to talk radio while putting my face on or getting ready for bed    Music alarms, sleep timers, routines, texts, timers, weather, wind speed, smart home devices, "dad" jokes (the BEST), broadcasting, general questions (Hey Google, whats the difference between roasting and baking settings on my oven?  Hey Google, what's the traffic like on I-20 @ US Hwy 69?), medical questions, calendar events, reminders, music streaming, Chromecasting (yes Mike, I finally learned how to tame CC data download  and have bought a v2 CC ) finding my phone, shopping list, location reminders, translations/conversions, ambient sounds, vacation planning (wowza, couldn't believe the helpful information!) IFTTT recipes, finding nearby ANYthing.