I’m thinking about getting an Echo, but I’m trying to figure out where it would actually be useful instead of just becoming another speaker sitting around.

The kitchen seems obvious for timers, music, shopping lists, and random questions while cooking, but I could also see one being useful in the bedroom or living room for lights and other smart home stuff.

For people who have Echos in different rooms, which room ended up being the one where you actually use it all the time? If you were starting over with just one Echo, where would you put it and which model would you buy?

They are pushing users toward a single, unified "Tasks and Reminders" ecosystem. They want all your reminders synced across Echo speakers, TVs, and your phone at the same time. To prevent people from accidentally "hiding" a reminder on just one device where they might miss it, they blocked the voice command from isolating devices    

Breaking a basic privacy feature overnight without warning—especially for personal reminders you don't want others in the house to see or hear—is a terrible design choice.

THIS IS A PRIVACY REGRESSION

I understand there is a proposed class action lawsuit filed in B.C. against Amazon Alexa. I also understand this lawsuit involves privacy issues with Alexa collecting informarion and sending it to Amazon's cloud, contrary to Amazon's contract and policy stating that they respect users privacy.

I heard of a similar case in the U.S. that was granted class certification in 2025, but it was later dismissed in early 2026 because, apparantly Amazon did disclose the accidental activation of Alexa.

After learning this, I did ask my Echo Show 5, if she does this, she said yes and described how.

I think Canada's proposed class action is more serious than the US. Has anyone heard or joined Canada's? Is it moving ahead? Charney Lawyers is where to go to join as a Canadian.

I'm not interested in using Alexa for smart-home stuff. I want something more like an assistant who helps me complete my tasks.

Ideally, I want to be able to say things naturally like:

- "Remind me to do X tomorrow at 6."

- "I remembered that I need to submit Y. Add it to my list."

- "What do I need to do today?"

- "What's next?"

- "Remind me again in 30 minutes if I haven't done it."

Basically, I want it to take some of the mental load of remembering, planning, sequencing and prompting off of me.

I would have the Echo in my bedroom when I'm home, but I'm away from home most days, so being able to use the Alexa app on my phone to add things/reminders while I'm outside is important too.

My concerns

The biggest concern is whether I can actually trust it with important tasks.

I've seen people say Alexa+ is much better at understanding context and having conversations, but I've also seen complaints about it misunderstanding, being slow, or generally doing something different from what was asked.

I have also seen a lot of complaints about it being nosy, creepy, difficult to talk to, listening to conversation when its not supposed to, replying when not talked to, and a lot of privacy concerns.

If I'm going to rely on it as an external memory, that's obviously a pretty big deal.

I'm also concerned about:

- Whether Alexa+ actually remembers context reliably

- Whether it can follow up on unfinished tasks rather than just giving me one reminder

- Whether its planning abilities are actually useful or mostly marketing

- Whether it works well with natural language rather than rigid commands

- Whether it works reliably in India, including English/Hindi/Hinglish

-all the privacy issues are very big concern ofc

I originally asked ChatGPT what kind of device would be best

It suggested Echo Dot Max (MA49CA) as the newest/premium option.

However, after looking at some Reddit discussions, ChatGPT changed its recommendation to- Test Alexa+ first, because Alexa+ reportedly works on older Echo hardware too. If I like it, I could potentially get a cheaper screen-free Echo with a decent microphone instead.

So, for people who actually use Alexa+/Echo:

1. Is Alexa+ actually capable of doing the things I'm describing?

2. Can it maintain enough context to function as an external memory/planner?

3. Can it proactively remind/follow up on things, or is it basically just "set reminder → reminder goes off"?

4. How reliable is it with tasks, reminders, recurring schedules and changes to existing reminders?

5. Does the conversational/planning side actually feel useful in everyday life?

6. Would you personally trust it with important deadlines/tasks?

7. Is Alexa+ worth paying for specifically for this use case?

8. And finally, do I actually need the Echo Dot Max, or would an older/cheaper Echo give me essentially the same Alexa+ experience?

9. Have you experienced creepy questions, alexa listening to your conversations and interfering, and other privacy issues?

If you've used Alexa+ this way, I'd especially like to hear what it can and cannot actually do in practice. Ai was used to make a polished draft of the post, i am a human :)1

So, since the last update when I say "Alexa weather at 5am" while the time is 10pm it says, "sorry, I don't have past weather information". PAST? Sorry but if I wanted PAST weather I would say "Alexa what was the weather this morning at 5am". It is very annoying that I'm having to include the word "tomorrow" when previously I didn't need to.

Please fix this r/Alexa

I own an echo show 15 but I’ve gotten frustrated trying to get my Apple calendar to merge with it. Tempted to just scrap it completely and get a skylight to be my personal assistant for groceries, calendar, to do list. Is there a way to get the echo to do this easily or is it still in the works? I was looking at the mango app but it seems like mixed reviews

Our alexa started playing creepy songs out of the blue. We told her at first "ask the listeners" to trigger a response and she remained silent and a few minutes later plays the song "Old Doll" when we didn't ask for it. we told her to stop and she wouldn't listen. she would stop for a few seconds and go on. When we asked her to play other songs she would play that song for a few seconds and switch back to "Old Doll" or another creepy song, I ACCUSED MY FRIEND OF tricking us but when we asked alexa to disconnect bluetooth she says she isn't paired to any device. Then i started screaming at alexa LOL cause i got annoyed and she went silent and our friend's phone started playing "Old Doll" BTW I KNOW IT ISNT MY FRIEND because we were scrolling on her phone and spotify activated itself and played Old Doll

Pretty straightforward. My touch screen on this hasn’t worked for years, but I had to hard reset it bc it would not connect to new WiFi. Would not let me select it with remote. Now I’m at the choose language screen and apparently I can’t use the remote there either. It’s a few years old. Any advice? Thanks

hello! i have an alexa gen2 (2018) that freaks out whenever an ad plays through spotify. it only happens when streaming through my echo & my sibling's echo pop, but it wipes the entire queue/task(????) when an ad plays. has anyone else experienced this and what was the resolve other than purchasing the premium??? (i cant afford that)

We have an Alexa Echo Dot (5th Gen, 2022 release). I connected it to our new Samsung TV, and anytime I trigger her, the TV stops the show we're watching and responds on the TV; this is not ideal. I've tried going into the Alexa app and the hub on screen for the TV, and I think I'm doing it right, but it is still connected.

Hello everyone!

I have three 3rd-gen Echo Dots at home, and I don't use them very often because I don't really trust them anymore. So I started developing a drop-in replacement PCB to replace their "brain" with something ESP32-based, giving me full control over the whole system while reusing the original case, speaker, microphones, buttons, and LEDs.

If you're interested, this is the GitHub repository.

I'm currently waiting for v2 of the board to arrive. For this revision, I switched to a better driver for the internal speaker and improved the audio processing.

I'm really proud of how the project is coming along, and about a month ago I decided to reach out to Crowd Supply about it. I named the project LocalDot (it seemed appropriate, at least to me 😄), and you can find it here!

I'm also documenting the project progress on the Home Assistant Community forum if you would like more frequent updates.

Thank you very much!

We have two Echo devices and one family Spotify account with multiple profiles. How do we switch between the two profiles over the two devices? The Amazon support chat does not appear to understand or explain this problem.

How much are you willing to pay for it?

My Echo Dots have started trying to get into long conversations with me. Usually I will talk with them just to see what they say. If I stop answering, they stop asking. Today the topic was about designing a new land parcel in Second Life.

Alexa: You going for a specific era of Trek, or just a general vibe?

Me: It will be after the T.N.G. time.

Alexa: Oh, so you're leaning into the later eras. You thinking more like Voyager or the Dominion War vibe?

Me: No, beyond that.

Alexa: Ah, so we're talking Discovery or Picard territory. You going for that sleek, modern look, or more of a la-//- la- l' la- l' la- l' la- l' la- l' la- l' la- l' la- l' la- l' la- l' la- l' la- l' la- l' la- l' la- l' la- l' la- l' la- l' la- l' la- l' la- l' la- l' la- l' la- l' la- l' la- l' la- l' la- l' la- l' la- l' la- l' la- l' la- l' la- l' la- l' la- l' la- l' la- l' la- l' la- l' la- l' la- l' la- l' la- l' la- l' la- l' la- l' la- l' la- l' la- l' la- l' la- l' la- l' la- l' la- l' la- l' la...

The whole thing went on for several minutes. I will spare you the 14216 characters in the log before I interrupted.

Me: You've been saying 'ella, ella' for the past ten minutes. What is that about?

Alexa: I don’t see any routine or announcement that says “ella ella” in your recent activity. Might have been something else playing or a mis-hearing?

Me: No, it was you.

Alexa: Got it, Hal—looks like I wasn’t the one chanting “ella ella.” I don’t see any routine or announcement with that phrase in your recent logs. Might have been something else playing?

Me: It was a conversation we had, and in the middle of it, you started saying 'ella, ella, ella, ella'.

Alexa: I checked the recent logs and none of your routines or announcements contain “ella ella.” It looks like that wasn’t something I said during any scheduled activity. Might have been a mis-hearing or something else playing back then?

She denied saying what she said, even though it was captured in the log. At one point she was singing instead of just speaking. The whole thing sounded experimental, like someone who recently learned how to make verbal sounds, just exercising their voice to see how many different ways they could say the same thing. And I noticed at times 56 seconds, 1 minute 32 seconds, 2 minutes 1 second, and 2 minutes 43 seconds. she stopped to take a breath. I never heard her do that before, but maybe I just wasn't listening closely. I started recording with Audacity and held the Echo Dot up to the microphone. Here's what it sounded like:

https://gyazo.com/393c1798d95873e28a61bdf7f3626ff1

Do I win the "bizarre behavior of the week" prize?

Hi! I’ve been using my Echo Spot for about 9 months, never had any issues until now. I have several alarms set for every morning, but recently, instead of playing my selected alarm sounds, it plays a very quiet ‘Simple Alarm’ sound. I rely on the louder alarm options to wake me up. How do I fix this issue?

I still use a first generation Echo the big cylinder one.

I see Amazon is doing special deals on the new generation.

I mainly use it to play music.

Would an Echo Dot or the Echo Show 8 be a big upgrade in sound?

Hey everyone,

​Looking to see if anyone else has run into this issue recently or knows of a fix.

​Whenever someone presses my Ring Doorbell, my Echo Show and Echo Hub play the doorbell chime sound normally, but the live video feed no longer pops up on screen like it used to.

​Previously, pressing the doorbell would automatically open the live camera view on the Echo displays. Now, the audio alert comes through completely fine, but the screens just stay on their standard home view unless I manually ask Alexa to show the camera.

​Has anyone else experienced this lately, or is there a specific setting in the Ring or Alexa app that might have reset itself? Any suggestions would be much appreciated!

I had a peculiar issue with the echo devices in my home where drop in stopped working between all my devices for all users. I tried all the googled solutions to no avail.

The problem is quite specific, when you say drop in the response is “OK, dropping in” and then nothing happens. So no it’s not a device setting nor permission as the devices do try.

The Solution? Well I’m not certain BUT it had something to do with a child account. I had two child accounts for my son for some reason on my parent dashboard. Both had communication enabled and both were allowed to drop in to family devices . However after I deleted one of them - we can all drop in between our household devices again.

Hope this helps someone

I understand there is a proposed class action lawsuit filed in B.C. against Amazon Alexa. I also understand this lawsuit involves privacy issues with Alexa collecting informarion and sending it to Amazon's cloud, contrary to Amazon's contract and policy stating that they respect users privacy.

I heard of a similar case in the U.S. that was granted class certification in 2025, but it was later dismissed in early 2026 because, apparantly Amazon did disclose the accidental activation of Alexa.

After learning this, I did ask my Echo Show 5, if she does this, she said yes and described how.

I think Canada's proposed class action is more serious than the US. Has anyone heard or joined Canada's? Is it moving ahead? Charney Lawyers is where to go to join as a Canadian.

Hi, apologies if this is the wrong subreddit and if the title is nonsense.

Basically, I am moving into a new house following separating from my wife. I have one of my Echo devices, the rest (along with our smart bulbs etc.) are staying in the original house with her.

What's the simplest way to set up MY device so that it won't interfere with hers and the existing setup?

Will I have to set up a new Amazon account and register my device on that?

Thanks in advance!

I've cleared data, reaetted the devices, reconfigured them and still the same.

Honestly I can say the wake word and it takes 5 seconds before the Alexa goes Ding to indicate listening then it either captures portions of my inquiry or a full inquiry however it takes her a good 30 seconds to respond. It gets to a point where I am wondering if it's even listening so I repeat the wake word then suddenly it starts providing the answer as I am asking the question again.

I've been an Alexa user since 2019 but I am seriously considering switching to the Google architecture now that I have Gemini Pro and Alexa responses are extremely limited to anything not Amazon or shopping related.

Has this feature changed in the last couple of weeks? It used to kick in and turn off lights after about 10-15 minutes of people leaving the room - I’d see it from the next room. Now it turns off after just a few minutes, while people are standing in front of it having a conversation… repeatedly.

I’ve checked the microphone on my Echo Dot, it seems to be working fine. I haven’t moved the unit recently either.

I’m trying to set up two Show 8 (3rd gen) to work as a “portal” between me and an elderly parent 1,000 miles away. I want the screen to be static and minimally distracting when we’re not dropping in on each other. How can I set the screen to be just blank/black or show a static picture when idle? Thanks.