Echo & Alexa Forums
General Category => Amazon Echo Discussion => Topic started by: Nosugrof on December 18, 2017, 03:47:19 pm
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I just bought two Echo Plus units and two Echo Connect units. One set is for my mom and one set is for me to test with. The idea is I can tie the Connect into her land line and she can make calls by simply naming who she wants to call. The Connect also supports 911 calls so this becomes a candidate for replacing her life alert.
I pre-ordered the Connect units and they arrived over the weekend. The first thing I discovered is the installation won't work from the web interface. When you try to add a new device Echo Connect isn't an option. I used the Alexa app on my Android and it completed with out too much trouble. I tried to make a call which connected fine but the recipient on the other end could barely hear me. I held the Echo Plus ~6 inches from my face and spoke very loud and the situation improved. I called Amazon support for guidance but the device is so new they don't have much information to help with trouble shooting. They did agree to send a replacement device which may remediate the issue. This is such a basic requirement I can't believe this could be a real defect in the design so hopefully the replacement will fix this problem.
When I ordered the Connect all it said I needed was a land line and a compatible Echo device. Now that I'm getting into the products it's looking like a smart phone may also be required. I couldn't complete the set up without it and now I'm not seeing anywhere to manage contacts. My mom is a little older and I'm concerned a smart phone may be a little too technical for her. It also adds a fair amount to the cost of the solution. I'm hopeful this is a platform I can build on to simplify her life a bit:
- Ease of making phone calls.
- Ease of managing thermostat, lights, etc.
- Simplify her television access.
If the Echo product managers are following these threads I hope they pick up on the idea that this is a huge market opportunity. I'm sure there are a lot of families that would very likely be happy to set this up for their parents.
I'm curious to hear if anyone else is exploring this technology to fit this use case and what their experiences have been.
One other point although it's a bit off topic. I also picked up the Amazon Fire TV stick thinking I could simplify television access and maybe avoid having to manage four different remote controls to watch TV. This is really tough for my mom to keep straight. Crud, I have a masters in computer science and I struggle with managing all the remotes for watching TV. I still have a lot of research and testing to do in this area but if this works it will be a huge relief for her and pretty cool for me too.
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Buy and set up the cheapest Smart phone you can to set up the Mom's situation, and set up contacts in that phone for HER... if you try and do it with your phone... things may not go so well. Once the system is set up and amazon recognizes the account and all that it entails... let the pay per month phone lapse and use the Amazon account. does your mother have internet at all? If so you'll be fine with that once set up and running. Provided no passwords are out with the phone lapse... it should be all good. The connect may be suited to the set up as well once you establish an account. Cell phone Shouldn't have any bearing on anything after set up, as long as you have access to internet settings on the Amazon.Alexa you should be golden. I recommend Straight talk (Walmart) and their cheapest smart phone available. They're usually some crappy branded piece that will work for this stuff as far as setting up Echos. If you choose to use the Echos for other things such as lighting or AV items, thermostat... may want to get into a bit nicer phone and keep it on a month to month contract at least... some are pretty cheap.
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Can you have incoming calls only ring on select devices? I don’t want incoming calls to ring on the echo dots in my kids room.
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I bought an Echo Connect for my nearly blind mother so that she could make and receive calls via voice prompts.
She has no smart phone (cannot even see to use one), so the lack of a web or app interface that would allow me to maintain her contacts makes the Connect useless for her.
How can Amazon assume that everyone has a smartphone?
FAIL
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How can Amazon assume that everyone has a smartphone?
The same way Amazon assumes everyone has a broadband internet connection.
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I had the same question about individual devices and called Amazon CS, which didn't know the answer. But I think you can use the Alexa app to turn on DO NOT DISTURB for certain devices so they don't get the call notifications.
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I bought an Echo Connect for my nearly blind mother so that she could make and receive calls via voice prompts.
She has no smart phone (cannot even see to use one), so the lack of a web or app interface that would allow me to maintain her contacts makes the Connect useless for her.
How can Amazon assume that everyone has a smartphone?
FAIL
what I see is someone did not do their homework. amazon did not fail.
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I bought an Echo Connect for my nearly blind mother so that she could make and receive calls via voice prompts.
She has no smart phone (cannot even see to use one), so the lack of a web or app interface that would allow me to maintain her contacts makes the Connect useless for her.
How can Amazon assume that everyone has a smartphone?
FAIL
what I see is someone did not do their homework. amazon did not fail.
They have failed to meet the needs of a market segment (vision impaired) that would benefit greatly from Echo assistive technology.
They have failed by assuming that everyone will agree to give them their entire contacts list, when a simple phone book would suffice.
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They have failed to meet the needs of a market segment (vision impaired) that would benefit greatly from Echo assistive technology.
They have failed by assuming that everyone will agree to give them their entire contacts list, when a simple phone book would suffice.
I fail to see your logic here. I am not vision impaired and that is why I don't even use call/text feature. And honestly this connect would be a waste of my money and time. I am getting rid of my landline actually.
But I believe this is good for seniors and handicapped people. Why would you not agree to sync your contact list? It is the only way it can make your life easier. You would rather go to phone book all the time? And actually who still uses phone book when you can ask an AI the phone number? With or without this connect device.
By the way, I have not asked an AI for a phone number yet but tried it just now on Cortana and Alexa. They both said the phone number of the target store nearest me. Cortana is better, it showed the phone number on my laptop screen.
I just said - AI, target phone number.
Ok GA, pulled up list of target phone numbers near me.
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When I said phone book, I meant a simple phone book list in the app. Just names and numbers.
I hesitate to share my entire contacts list with email, birthdays, home addresses, business info etc. when all that is needed by Echo are the phone numbers.
I understand the convenience from the Amazon coders point of view but a way to view and edit the phone information can't be that hard. It is too opaque right now and mandates the use of a smart phone
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What you are implying is like saying Huffy (bicycle manufacturer) failed to meet the needs of a market segment (vision impaired). It's quite obvious that the vision impaired market is not their target audience. But it does come in handy for some folks who happen to be in that situation. More power to them for taking advantage of technologies they can benefit from.
Just 10 years ago, I played around with a $6000 hunk of junk made specifically for the vision impaired that I was setting up for a friend. This hunk of junk was something that was approved by the FDA. After hours and hours of voice training, it barely recognized a few words. It was completely useless and caused more frustration for my friend. Being a hardware and software guy, I ended up rigging up a Windows XP computer with Dragon Dictate and my own custom software and X10's to do the things she needed. Basically I had Dragon Dictate transcribe voice to text into a text box in my custom software which parsed the text to determine what needs to be done. Output was thru the X10 RS232 adapter to control other devices.
Forward to the present. A $29 device (Echo Dot) can do so much more with accuracy that's far greater than even the most expensive technology 10 years ago. Apple made Siri several years before Amazon was even known to be working with natural language processing. If anyone was to be dumped on, it's Apple for sitting on Siri for so many years and not doing more with it. Google had voice and natural language technology from around 2002. Anyone remember the free 411 (I think it was 800-goog-411)? That was Google collecting voice data for analysis which is probably the basis for various Google technologies including Google Assistant. Amazon's Alexa has only been available for 2 years.
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When I said phone book, I meant a simple phone book list in the app. Just names and numbers.
I agree with you on this. It shouldn't be an All-or-Nothing choice. It should be an option to share your entire contact list or just enter contacts one by one manually within the Alexa app, with no access to your phone's contact list.
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I think there are at least a couple of valid points raised here justifying adding a simple contact list in the web app.
- privacy: not everyone wants to expose their full contact list to Echo. This is still pretty new stuff and a breach would be unpleasant for all stakeholders. Echo doesn't even need full contact details for making calls so limiting the access aligns with security best practices.
- market penetration: lots of people, especially seniors are using flip phones or just land lines but would benefit greatly from this technology. Providing a simple contact list in the app bridges the technology to this market segment.
Being able to add contacts with a voice command similar to adding an item to my shopping list would be very cool. I'll be interested to see how this evolves.
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Has anyone tried two Echo Connects?
Is there a way to associate some Echos with a given landline?
Even with just one landline, is there a way to block an Echo from Incoming calls other than 'Do not Disturb'? We have several Echos but only one is used for phone calls. DND keeps the others from being used as intercoms
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I bought an Echo Connect for my nearly blind mother so that she could make and receive calls via voice prompts.
She has no smart phone (cannot even see to use one), so the lack of a web or app interface that would allow me to maintain her contacts makes the Connect useless for her.
How can Amazon assume that everyone has a smartphone?
FAIL
what I see is someone did not do their homework. amazon did not fail.
They have failed to meet the needs of a market segment (vision impaired) that would benefit greatly from Echo assistive technology.
They have failed by assuming that everyone will agree to give them their entire contacts list, when a simple phone book would suffice.
based on this post, it proves you did not do your homework. amazon did not fail, you did. you do not need a smartphone, you do not need to provide your contact list, there are ways around everything you complained about.
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Okay - maybe I'm missing something but the contact list is one of the issues I'm trying to resolve. How do you manage a phone directory with "Echo Connect" without the contact list from a smart phone? If there's a way to do this then that would be a big step toward making this usable for my mom.
A new issue I've run into with this device is that when I try to call someone from my contact list that has the same area code as me the call fails with the phone company recording, "It's not necessary to dial one plus the area code before this number". Apparently the Echo Connect prefixes all calls with 1+area-code when using the land line. This is kind of a deal breaker as I can't call anyone local (same area code) from my contact list. In the interim I've changed my configuration to use my mobile for all calls until I can resolve this issue. It seems to me that Amazon needs to do one of two things:
1 - Provide a contact list where I can provide the exact number Connect is supposed to use including area codes, country codes or other prefixes.
2 - Configure a local area code in Connect so it knows what area codes to exclude when placing calls.
I get that Connect is new and it's going to evolve with customer usage but this seems like something that needs a quick remediation for this product to succeed.
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OK, my .02, fwtw.
I was very excited with the announcement of this product. As previously discussed:
1. I was looking for a simple speaker phone type setup that worked with my landline.
2. The "Call 911" was a big deal to me.
3. Ease of address book manipulation. I have a $50 multi-room landline system that allows 250 contacts, and announces who's calling.
I'm glad I didn't preorder. I'll watch how this one matures.
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It would be nice to be able to remove a particular Echo from the phone announcement without having to use DO NOT DISTURB. I tried that on my Echo Show, which currently displays pictures of our grandchild as a screensaver. But DND shuts off the screen saver and just displays a black screen with a clock.
Also, is there any way to test the ability to call 911, without calling 911? That sounds like an odd question, but calling 911 frivolously shouldn't be done as it disrupts important emergency services. But the ability to call that number is why we got the Connect. But if that doesn't work, there's no reason for us to have it.
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I bought an Echo Connect for my nearly blind mother so that she could make and receive calls via voice prompts.
She has no smart phone (cannot even see to use one), so the lack of a web or app interface that would allow me to maintain her contacts makes the Connect useless for her.
How can Amazon assume that everyone has a smartphone?
FAIL
ALL the options related to calling to/from Echo devices have required a smartphone. And that smartphone, if android, has to be up to a certain level of OS else it does not work.
Yes, Amazon should be much clearer about this. Then perhaps their tech support lines would not be getting such a workout. But then again, their objective right now is market penetration - and if a little inconvenience on the customer side is reflected in some additional corporate expenditure on their support side, it’s a price they are willing to pay.
The business model works. I did, after all, go out and get a ‘burner’ android phone just to configure Alexa. lol
In any event, Connect is a killer app. Just last night, as I was cleaning up Xmas, my brother called. The Dot blinged, said “incoming call from Joe”, I replied “Alexa, answer”, and we talked. And I realized I had not had to rinse my hands and go press the button to put on speakerphone before the answering machine would kick in, and my brother sounded like he was in the room with me, and it was a far more ‘natural’ experience than anything having to do with a typical phone call.
The future is finally arriving.
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I bought an Echo Connect for my nearly blind mother so that she could make and receive calls via voice prompts.
She has no smart phone (cannot even see to use one), so the lack of a web or app interface that would allow me to maintain her contacts makes the Connect useless for her.
How can Amazon assume that everyone has a smartphone?
FAIL
what I see is someone did not do their homework. amazon did not fail.
They have failed to meet the needs of a market segment (vision impaired) that would benefit greatly from Echo assistive technology.
They have failed by assuming that everyone will agree to give them their entire contacts list, when a simple phone book would suffice.
based on this post, it proves you did not do your homework. amazon did not fail, you did. you do not need a smartphone, you do not need to provide your contact list, there are ways around everything you complained about.
If I could.... yes, Jasg did not “do his/her homework”.
However, Amazon has not exactly made homework easy where this stuff is concerned.
That said, Amazon has not ‘failed’ in this. Too many people have too large an expectation for technologies that, as mass-market entries, are still in their toddlerhood. It was just two years ago that Echo came along. It is just days ago that Connect, in its first iteration, was released.
If history is any guide, the Connect feature set will be honed over the next couple years based on usage patterns and customer feedback. For the moment, once you get past individual frustrations with amazon’s business model I think it’s pretty awesome as-is.
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My issue with the Connect is a little odd. When I first set it up, it worked like a charm, other than adding a 1 and a prefix for local numbers, but I figured I could set up some numbers in my contacts and call them "local" to leave the extra digits off. Anyway, I am already off track. The problem is, that after I set up a couple of new Alexa devices, calling seemed to stop. However, today I am able to make calls from it, and the caller ID indeed shows it coming from the land line. However, Alexa refuses to acknowledge incoming calls now. The phone rings, Alexa just sits. If I ask her to answer, she lets me know there are no incoming calls. No device has blocking on, all have "drop in" enabled (household). There must be some setting I have incorrect? The connect gets great Wi-Fi signal, shows online, but just doesn't seem to want to behave. Any ideas? I was going to deregister and reregister it in an attempt to get it to work.
You don't suppose it is because the Alexa app is on two smartphones signed into the same Alexa account? Only one phone has access given to sync the contacts. Maybe I need to logoff the second device? Just frustrating.
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Are you using any phone line splitters on your Connect? Try not to use a splitter and connect it directly to the phone outlet (unless you have DSL internet service).
The "ring" voltage on a phone line has to be around 75 to 90-volts AC for a telephone device to know that it's ringing. Also, some telephones tend to hog the voltage to itself. The result of that is other telephone devices will not ring.
One other thing to look for is if you have DSL internet service. You have DSL if your internet service is from a phone company (e.g. AT&T, Verizon, Centurylink), rather than a cable company (e.g. Cox, Comcast, Charter). If you do have DSL, your telephone devices should be connected to the phone side of the DSL filters that they gave you. Your telephone devices should not be connected directly to the phone line. A filter should be between the phone outlet and each of your telephone devices.
DSL filters come in many different shapes and sizes. But they all do the same thing. Here is a diagram showing how a typical filter should be connected.
(http://aaainter.net/dsl/image001.gif)
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I've run into a new issue and I wonder if anyone else has hit this snag. If I choose the land line for all calls it automatically prefixes all calls with 1+area-code. For local calls the phone company responds with a recording telling me it isn't necessary to use this prefix and tells me to hang up and call again without the prefix. This basically means the only way I can configure this is to make the mobile the primary and only use the land line for calls that can't be connected using my mobile (e.g. 911). This really makes the service almost unusable as I'm not sure how it will act if I'm not home. If someone calls my mobile while I'm away will the echo in my house ring? If someone at my house makes a call using Alexa will it tie up my mobile? What happens if I'm away somewhere and I'm using my phone and someone at my house tries to use Alexa to make a call? It seems to me the Echo Connect has to be improved to support local calls over land lines without applying the prefix. Without this I don't see this product being viable.
Anyone else run into this issue or identify a solution?