Echo Dot (3rd Gen) - Smart speaker with Alexa - Sandstone

August 2020 Update:Alexa still drives me crazy sometimes, but she is incredibly useful. We had to factory reset our device to get it to work properly again. That made a big difference. After she was working right, I ended getting another Echo Dot so my kids can have their own Alexa. We also got a Show 8 and having all 3 has made us realize how great Alexa is, despite her occasional feistiness. Yes, we argue with Alexa still...too often tbh...but less often than before. That still doesn't outweigh how wonderful this device is. I talked so much about ours that my Sister and Grandparents ordered an Echo Dot and Show 8 and they love Alexa now.March 10 2020 Update:We are very unhappy with Alexa. We opened our echo dot on Christmas and at first Alexa seemed amazing. Now not as much. We spend so much time yelling at Alexa to get her to stop doing random annoying things. She sets random alarms daily. She doesn't play my actual alarms or reminders all the time and I constantly have to recreate them. She stops our music randomly all the time. She randomly starts listening to us which is creepy. When we ask what she was just doing she'll respond with, "I thought I heard a request to blah blah blah"...when no one even made a sound. She plays Samuel L. Jackson instead of my son's Samuel's playlist, and if I get charged for it I will be furious because she's always trying to do this and wont shut him off for several minutes of me and my kids yelling to her to stop. We're ALWAYS yelling, "Alexa! STOP!" just to get her to stop doing whatever loud frustrating thing she's doing, like playing music we hate when we've told her we don't like it or starting a skill we didn't ask her to start. When asking her why she did what she did, she gives us some non answer. She ignores me. The echo dot will light up, so we know it heard, yet Alexa will not even respond at all. She never seems to know the answer to questions anymore. She suddenly doesn't know songs she's played hundreds of times before for us. Which is annoying since I pay monthly for the service to hear whatever we want when we want. Yet she'll say she can't find the song or artist. Worst, when she does all these incredibly frustrating things there's no record of it in the app for me to click that she did not do what we wanted She rarely records what she does in the app anymore for that matter. I don't know what is going on with her and honestly I cannot stand Alexa right now. She is stressing me out because she is making things difficult with constant repetitions to get a single request done. I have to ask her constantly if she knows who I am and she says she does, yet she seems to not hear my voice. I contacted support over a week ago and a reset did not help at all. The rep was very nice, however she told me she'd follow up to continue to fix the issue the next day at 11 am and she never did. Alexa has since gotten much worse. I was ready to buy these for each room just before this began, but since this worsening issue the past month or so, I wont be buying anymore of these for my family and will probably just box the echo dot up at some point.Original Review:January 2019 We love Alexa on Echo Dot 3rd Generation. She has her flaws to be sure. Before I get into those let me tell you the best thing about her. I am currently in the hospital getting some scans done and my kids are with their Grandpa. I can drop in on them through the Alexa app. The little one doesn't need to ask for or figure out a cell phone to ask Alexa to call me because he's missing me. That right there is worth all the somewhat minor hassles we've had with Alexa. So now more info. If you want to hear a song...ask Alexa and she plays it. She wakes me to the quietest most peaceful song that I love. I cannot do being jolted awake by an alarm. She let's me wake peacefully, no stress, nice and calm and quietly. It's also been working for my kids who now wake that way as well and our mornings have been significantly better and we're ready to leave 10 minutes early rather than running late. It has been so nice. Alexa can tell me the weather any time so we make sure to wear the appropriate amount of layers for the weather. Which helps set thermostat for the colder morning hours to keep us perfectly warm and comfortable til que leave the house. If I wake up in the middle of the night, I dont have to look at my phone screen to check the time anymore I tell Alexa to set her volume to 3, ask the time, and she quietly tells me the time and answers anything I ask. She can call my phone if I lose it, which happens often. She guards the house when we leave and listens for smoke alarm or glass breaking, which gives me peace of mind. My kids and I got sick and the 3 of us were on completely different antibiotic and Tamiflu schedules. Alexa keeps track of it all for me which is great because mine gave me insomnia and I worried I'd become sleep deprived and we'd miss doses. So we have been right on time for each of our medicines thanks to Alexa. Alexa has helped with the insomnia too by playing quiet calming instrumental music that surprised me because it helped my brain quiet down to sleep despite my medicine making it difficult those first few days.The negative: Alexa can answer certain questions...but not very well tbh. We raise our voice to get her to listen too often. We ask her if she can hear us often. I often ask her why she did what she did. She really cannot give a real answer beyond sending me online for answers. She doesn't hear us properly a chunk of the time, which can be funny, but is often more annoying than anything else if we really do not want to hear whatever it is she misheard. We have only had Alexa since Christmas, so I'm sure we'll either love her more or find more flaws as time goes by, but for now Alexa is amazing.What would make her better: She needs the knowledge to match her abilities. Also, Amazon shouldn't allow just anyone to answer questions on Alexa Answers, especially incorrectly or you get ridiculous answers to questions. That's just asking for disinformation and trouble.

Works great with fire tablet and iPhone better than my home pod tbh

My Alexa is on twelve hours a day! I love her! In addition to the free music that is accessed by the basic Alexa program, I have somehow added Pandora, I Heart Music, and Spotify. (I have no idea how I accomplished it.) I can listen to any kind of music, at any time of day, in any room of my house. And the sound is first-rate. When my little grand-daughters come over, I ask Alexa for some children's music and it plays all the Disney movie sound tracks. They dance and sing along!

When I first got it, She wouldn't do anything, you do have to use the app and go in and build her "personality". For the first couple of days I thought I was going to return it. Then I sat down with Alexa and the app and spent about 30 minutes going through all the functions and options.I am 47 years old, was diagnosed with a morbid case of diabetes when I was 45 and have been horrible about taking my insulin and checking my blood sugar on a consistent time line, which is crucial. So, I set reminders in Alexa to tell me "its time to test your BG", It is time for your short acting insulin (3 times a day) and at 11pm she reminds me to take my long acting insulin and Lisinipro for the evening. Because of Alexa reminding me, I have gotten my A1C down from 9 to 6.5. That is an invaluable feature for me.Then, one day, I had a song in my head and just said, "Alexa, play "Like a stone" by Chris Cornell. And bam, she plays it. I do have the Amazon music subscription which I think you need in order for this to work but I have not been able to think of a song or artist that she cant find and play within seconds. My Chocolate lab "Copper" loves the song "Baby Shark" so I set a "routine" and all I have to say is "Alexa, what does Copper like?" and she jams Baby Shark for him while he bucks around the living room having a blast.I have been playing Trivia battle every single day. She makes lists for me so I don't forget things I need for work. She sets reminders for me so I don't forget appointments and other important things. You can say "Alexa, set a reminder on March 15th that my brothers birthday is tomorrow, or a week from now, or, whatever you need.I learn something new that she does every day and went from one of those paranoid skeptics to a total believer. In fact, I got a second one for the living room and have them linked. She will read E-books to me while I work. I am a history buff and I can say, Alexa, tell me about Abraham Lincoln, and she will go on and on with just about any historical question or figure. She does math, she tells me what my weather is like currently and what it is going to be like through out the day.Honestly, I love this device, I have a white one and a black one, one is called Alexa and one is called Lexi (so you can drop in from room to room with music or conversation) Just the improvement in my health with the reminders she gives me has been a life saver, not to mention I don't forget things anymore because when I think of it, Ill set a reminder and Alexa and Lexi take care of it.I know a lot of people think "oh, that thing records everything you say all day and it is an invasion of privacy" well, that is incorrect because you can turn it off (red ring) and really so what if she listens to what me and my wife talk about... IF she is, all she hears is what we are thinking about eating for dinner, what's on Netflix or Amazon Prime video and us playing with our dog.I cant recommend this device enough, when I leave the house, I say "Alexa, we are leaving" and she has particular parameters that she listens for (breaking glass, doors getting smashed in) when we get home I say, Alexa, we are home and she says "Okay, I will stop guarding the house for now.Get one and try it, you wont be sorry.