Alexa responding to thank you.

DH has an echo dot in his bedroom. Yesterday a yellow ring was flashing on the top. He didn't understand what it was for. I didn't either, so I went and asked. Alexa's answer was it was to alert you to notifications. I asked what the notification was, and she told me my Amazon package was to be delivered. My slippers had arrived earlier in the day, so I cancelled the notification.
DH now knows the reason for the yellow light ring, what I was left wondering was, why didn't he ask Alexa about it himself, instead of asking me?

I personally don't trust them. However, I do get Merryweather's point that if you have limited mobility it can be a useful tool. If I ever found myself in that situation I think I would get one. Otherwise I just dont see the need.

Watermeadow, that did make me laugh!

But it's not the reason I'd never have one of those things in the house! I find the whole listening thing so creepy and sinister.

It wasn’t an American accent I object to but the Americanisation of our language.
For instance, wanting kitchen cupboards I discovered that they are now called “cabinets”
When we say Please or Thankyou it doesn’t need any response. Does Alexa also address you as Sir or Ma’am in the southern US fashion?

Oh kittylester I think Watery Forest would have me desperate to pee behind a tree a night long !

gustheguidedog The people who genuinely think Voice Controlled Devices are spying (as oppose to those who are joking about it, tongue in cheek) simply have no idea how it works.

I remember my great aunt being very scared when my parents bought a televisio because she was convinced "the television people can see through it into your house".
Mind you, she though a light socket without a bulb in it, leaked electricity into the room.

I too am vision impaired and at the moment seem to manage okay with a mixture of technologies - and thank god for them I say.

This thread has made me laugh ? about the reactions to/from Siri, Alexa or some other helper.

I know that to some readers it is not pleasant, it may be spooky or irritating but all in all the thread has made interesting reading. ?

Yes I too have noticed this,

So glad I haven’t got one of these virtual ‘servants’. I can’t think of anything worse than having some distant robot talking to me.

Nobody has mentioned the Google . It decided the other day to answer a question on Eggheads- cheesecake- got it right of course.

Maybe someone could suggest to the developers they include an option for British English versus American English during setup, like they do for different languages. The difference between the 2 can be quite distinct.

We have a number of hue coloured lights and lighting strips in the lounge and around the house. It is so much easier to ask Alexa to turn the on and off than it is to do it uning the phone or manually, and they maintain their pre set colour.

DGC love mine they asked her where she lived and she said she was Cloudian she lives in the cloud so I guess she is reading all my kindle books that are in the cloud. I asked mine to play the prelude to Tanhauser and got Taylor Swift singing . I tried Gilbert and Sullivan and you can guess what I got time after time . She is good for reminders about appointments and timers .

Alexa very useful for helpful grandchildren with maths homework!!

Finding my way around a new iPad and Siri constantly popped up without being asked! I was so irritated I told Siri to ‘b.g.er off’, to which it replied “what have I done to deserve that’! No comment!

We love her..How I wish my dad was still alive to see this wonder.
Its more hilarious that people really believe shes spying.

Apparently Alexa is a feminist. Ask her

I'm sure these devices are excellent for people who really do need their assistance, but as I am perfectly able-bodied I don't have any of them (and resist all requests from my tablet to engage Google Assistant although the poor thing is desperate for me to do so - practically begging, indeed).
Grannybags have you tried responding to your 7 year old GD with "Glad you brought that up" ... I'm sure that would give her a giggle!

For disabled me she's invaluable. Turns lights on, kettle on, TV on, cam 'drop in on the girls or OH in another room so I can ask for something, music, TV episodes, times table tunes for my daughters, quizzes, quick reference for pretty much everything and anything etc.
The fart and extreme fart are hilarious.
Why on earth would amazon be listening for? It would be spying. What on earth do you discuss?

My dgc love asking Alexa how many sleeps until Christmas. Alexa is friendly with Santa and he joins in witha Christmas cracker joke. I only got it because it came free with my phone but we have had lots of fun with it. If you had told me 20 years ago that I would have a robot in my living room....!

Alexa drives me bonkers!, I’ve unplugged her.
If I want the weather I look outside..... for anything else I ask Siri.... much more reliable. Never fails to answer my question
succinctly and without saying ‘ I do t think I know that’

I play my music via Spotify. We also pay for that so we dont get ads but I can play any music (including my playlist) on it so long as i specify that it's on spotify.

We have an Echo Dot speaker, but I only switch it on when I want to listen to the radio or do a quiz. It’s great for receiving obscure radio stations.
It annoys me though, that it won’t let me listen to my own music; I have to buy from Amazon. I object to giving my custom to them because they have such a monopoly. No wonder the high street shops are closing down...

I must be a bit of a technophobe because I have no idea how they work . I assume you need a good internet connection? How do you get it to switch on the lights - do you need special light fittings? (See told you I was a technophobe!)

I don't think Amazon (or whoever) have people sitting around listening to conversations but I do think it possible that computers are programmed to monitor requests, questions etc.

It has to be a personal decision weighing up privacy against convenience. But Amazon does listen to recordings, in theory to improve speech recognition, but I would not be happy to have one. If I need to turn on the lights, play music, watch TV or find out the weather I can use two feet and get a tiny bit of exercise.

www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/amazon-is-listening-in-to-your-alexa-recordings/ar-BBVQxoF

www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-49502292