Tech: Why Is Alexa+ So Bad?
When I first mounted Amazon's new Echo Show 15 on my kitchen wall, I was enthusiastic about its potential as a hands-free entertainment device. I enjoy listening to music or playing YouTube videos in the background as I’m cooking dinner. So moving that from my phone and onto the wall, with Amazon’s upgraded Alexa+ AI voice assistant that I can prompt hands-free, sounded like a winning combo.
But now, after more than a month with Alexa+ on this 15-inch screen, I’ve concluded that Alexa+ simply doesn’t work well and lacks the basic reliability I need from a smart home device. Yes, it’s still in early access, but it maneuvers like an unpredictable toddler smashing around and half-completing tasks.
Alexa+ is designed to be better at understanding your requests, more personally tuned, and capable of more natural conversational interactions rather than rigid commands. To me, it felt like interacting with a synthetic bridge troll haranguing me until I said the magic combination of words. The AI assistant can be so persnickety that I let out an exasperated sigh at least once during every interaction in my kitchen as I trudged over to the remote or touchscreen in resignation to finish something Alexa+ struggled to accomplish.
Amazon markets Alexa+ as a service that can help automate multiple tasks in your life, like ordering groceries and booking an Uber. I’m not here to order a ride from my voice assistant; I just want some entertaining distractions as I scrub the dishes.
It has become a running gag in my household trying to guess what musician Alexa+ will play on YouTube when requesting a song. A request for some Charli XCX was answered with Sombr’s “Back to Friends.” Instead of The Black Keys, I got Alabama Shakes. When it’s not playing a similar artist, Alexa+ sometimes searches a phrase on YouTube and leaves me to choose a video from the results.
If I meticulously phrase my requests in highly specific ways, then I could occasionally get what I wanted. For example,
