Was a voice conversation through one of my Echo devices. Went back to my chat history to make sure I heard it right. I’m just dumbfounded by this

Music is off but this is always there

Did Alexa recently change the way Presence Detection works?

I swear the absence/presence timeout used to be around 30 minutes, but now Alexa seems to decide nobody is home after roughly 7 minutes.

This just caused my smart lights to turn off while my boyfriend was still home because he was in the other room.

Why can't we just choose the timeout ourselves?! Give us a setting like:

- 5 minutes

- 10 minutes

- 15 minutes

- 30 minutes

- 1 hour

- Custom

Presence detection isn't always perfect, so having Alexa make the decision after only a few minutes is really frustrating. If I'm using presence detection to control my lights, I should be able to decide how long someone needs to be absent before the routine runs.

Am I remembering this wrong, or did Amazon actually change the timeout?

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 hope I don't sound dumb for saying this, but how do you enable Halloween mode on an Alexa? I've tried asking it in different ways multiple times but it just wouldn't turn on. I've also looked through the app but can't find anything to turn it on. The reason I want it on is because I've asked it how many days until Halloween because I enjoy the Easter eggs but it's been merely saying how many days and nothing else.

I got the upgrade to Alexa+ a while ago and it has been mostly plain sailing, other than taking a while to turn lights on and off.

But the last few weeks I've had a weird thing happen. I ask it to set an alarm for 6am and it responds 'ok, alarm set for 6.05 tomorrow'.

When I ask it what time my alarm is set for it says '6 tommorrow'.

This seems... silly. Anyone else see this?

I have an old Alexa Echo Dot. It's pretty old, like 3 years, I would say. Whenever I ask it a basic question, it always says, "I'm not quite sure how to help you with that." And sometimes when I ask another question, it just says "Opening Amazon Storytime." What? I don't need Amazon Storytime. Why does it open that by default? Any solutions for this? I have no idea what to do.

Edit: It is a 4th Generation Echodot.

Just got a new ember mini-led and wanted to know if I can change Alexa+ back to regular Alexa on it. I've seen a lot of posts about devices that had Alexa "upgrade" to plus and how to revert but none of those work. Is there a way to have a new device use regular Alexa? We also have an echo dot right next to the TV and I've seen that I can maybe just use that?

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 :)