17 NEW Amazon Alexa Features You'll LOVE!
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- Опубликовано: 7 сен 2024
- Amazon Alexa and Amazon smart home products are still getting new features and new updates. I'm going to showcase all of the new Alexa features and upgrades in today's video! There are many new music playing, book reading, and entertainment features with Alexa and your Echo speakers and Echo Show smart displays.
The great news is you can use all of these new features for Alexa for free and without using anything except the app and the speaker you already have. In today's video you'll find everything from new Alexa routine features, to new entertainment features, new Fire TV features on your Echo Shows, and even new smart home features!
You'll see lots of tech news on the Amazon Echo Show 15, Amazon Alexa, and even the Matter Smart Home standard, plus more. Enjoy!
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Thanks for watching, and Don't Hate, Automate.
Brian
Alexa has been more interruptive as of late. I spend more time telling it to shut up, than asking it to perform basic tasks.
Mine often doesn't do what I tell her to unless I shout at her
Say Alexa "Stop By The Way"
@@ksks6802 stops it from telling you what else it can do
Set it to brief mode
Alexa needs a voice sensitivity setting like Google does. Although my Echo Dot 3 gen is not as sensitive as 2nd gen.
I'm actually quite frustrated with Alexa at the moment. A lot of the features projected haven't surfaced, a lot of stuff they offered has quietly gone away, and a lot of age-old bugs remain unfixed to this day. I'd love to see a peek behind the scenes to find out what, if anything, they are working on. My best guess is that Alexa will probably be migrated to a full language model as soon as they can make it fast enough. That would for the most part be a huge improvement.
I really like these feature update summaries because I would otherwise never know about new stuff available on the platform. Keep up the good work!
Glad you like them! Thanks Michael
Didn't know about the sound routine but it works wonders. Love it.
Glad you like it!
Audible whispersync is only for audible titles. It already had TTS for kindle books.
Love your videos and reports/recommendations. Looking forward to more Routine control. I've bumped up against the max they allow. I hit 200 routines, and can't add any more without deleting some. I have 140 devices on my network. Every room has at least one Echo.
I want them to give us the choice to answer yes/no in a routine and carry out different commands from that routine.
Wow! Amazing that you've found the limits. I just blew away everything in the app at about 500 devices in the app but I never hit that routine limit!
Conditions is so key for that next level of routines! I'll keep looking for it
Unfortunately the kindle read feature doesn't seem to be available in the uk. Amazon really only cares about North America users as so many features never make it to other regions.
Yeah that kindle one is brand new so there might be some waiting on it. Usually the UK is 2-3 months behind if a feature will come
@@AutomateYourLife The sad reality is that many of the features never get released in other regions. For example, simple features like "ramp brightness" were never released in the UK. Unfortunately North America is Amazon's only focus.
This and a number of other features are not in Australia either... Mind you we don't even have the Alexa household functions here 😭
Crazy helpful. I pride myself on keeping up with Alexa, but I didn't know about ANY of these things. I will be tinkering for the rest of the week.
Enjoy!
Excellent update on new and improved features.
Thanks!
5:44 "Random fart sound" is the most important part of this video.
LOL
Neat features. But I'd like it to quit shuffling "and similar artists" That was a change a month or two back and it sucks.
Yeah that's a baaaaad change. So frustrating
Thanks Brian, it's hard to figure out when new features were added to the automations for Alexa,!! keep the videos coming.
You bet! Thank you!
Anyone know when Geofencing will be available in the UK?
You have to walk us through the steps from the basics.
I'll be creating an Alexa 101 type of video soon, so hopefully that can catch you up!
Thanks for the info. The new device widget is a step in the right direction but the new one is to big it takes up the whole screen (in landscape)
The one feature I want is a way to upload a short audio or video clip to Alexa and be able to integrate it with an Alexa routine
That would be nice!
Hi Brian. Excellent feature list. I especially like the Kindle voice feature.
Thanks Frank! I hope this is exciting for everyone!
Adding new features when they still haven't made available past features to everyone. Eero Built-In is still only available in the US and Canada!
Hopefully they get more rolled out around the world soon!
I don't have just one Amazon app. Which app do I find the play menu in
Alexa app, and it's now in Settings
You are so awesome mate!! you sort life of how to use automations.
Happy to help!
Brian, are these updates to the Alexa App only available in USA or are they available anywhere; Additionally are they only available on a Android Device? Some of what your are showing comes up on iOS, but many things are missing!
It's all over the place with Amazon unfortunately. Some of these will show up on iOS first, others on Android. I showed everything this time on Android and with a US account (even though I'm in Canada). However, I've seen all of it on iOS too as of late, so I don't think it's OS specific.
Some countries won't have them all yet though. And it's impossible to find out lists of which have it and which don't...sorry!
So many aspects I didn't know. Thanks again, Brian for all your great and helpful info!
Thanks Big Bear!😃
I am still waiting for routine to setup when I say Alexa good night for instance it plays a specific lullaby playlist shuffle on three separate echos in three separate rooms of my little kids vs currently only let me play on one room echo.
Have you made a speaker group?
@@SmartHomeHASHTAGS yes sir I have tried this as well 1: though I do not want them in a group because I like them all separate in their own group room since their own individual rooms but also I tried it just for shits and giggles to see if that would do it, and when you do the routine, it does not let you select a group. It only lets you select a echo device if that makes sense
I think I could make this happen...but it would take some doing for sure.
The Kindle read feature has been on my Echo Show for a long time, but it’s only good for a couple of minutes, then starts repeating itself (not going back to the beginning, but going back ‘somewhere’)
Guess what?! It works properly now! (It didn’t when I tried it again just before I posted my first comment)
Yayyyyy!
Very well presented and useful information (as always!) thanks!
My pleasure! Thanks Joe!
So, I have a question. I have a baby granddaughter that comes over. When nap time comes we ask Alexa to play white noise. Works great until someone comes to the door or someone makes an announcement and wakes up the baby. How can we temporarily make an Echo make white noise, but ignore announcements from the front door or any one else? 🤷🏻♂️
Try turning on Do Not Disturb mode? That should stop it.
Make a routine that does both in the Alexa app. :)
@@AutomateYourLife Excellent, I’ll give it a try! That’s for taking the time to respond during your move! 😉👍🏻
I cannot find the occupancy sensor I tried to follow your advice go to device echo or Alexa then in the general section I didn't see it A lot of options that you had I don't have. I have three echo dots and a show.
If you're not in the us, that could be the issue. Some countries don't have it all. I made an account in the US with Amazon so I could do these kinds of things
@@AutomateYourLife I am in the USA.
@gria2003 so I'd chat with them about that
I would love to see or know how to using motion detection that music follows me as I move in my home and not just that lights go on and off.
We could do this with the same routines. But it'd be tough if more than one person lives there.
Thx for insightful tips.
👍👍
Which smart home would you go with Amazon or Google? Just bought my first house.
Google seems relatively uninterested in continuing to build smart home gear. Amazon's at least still trying. They also have actual automation features in their app, whereas Google's just never done Automation for us.
I still prefer Google gear for some stuff. Their displays are better, their cameras are better, their doorbell is. I just worry about longevity with Google now....
Great video again,I read a lot of kindle books and before I had one I listened to lots of audio books on my mp3 player but I thought I had to subscribe to Audible to get my books read to me so this reading assist will be so good for me when going to sleep at night,also I have a Fire 8 HD tablet,can I use that as an echo show in the UK
I don't know about in the UK specifically but I think Show Mode is available there yes!
can you play a music stream on multiple devices or all devices, to hear it throughout the house
Yep, create a group of speakers and then choose that
Presence sensing doesn't seem to work that great on the Echo 4th Gen I have. I have turned the settings up all the way and sometimes it will recognize when I walk into a room but it never recognizes when I leave a room. I have tried cycling motion sensing and restarting the device. That's disappointing.
I find that the expectation of presence sensing is different than how it works on the echo 4th generation. I would suggest that if you turn the sensitivity up but the range fairly far down than you will find it works in a close proximity
But it only tries to determine if you've left the space within about 30 minutes. So it's not a device for immediate sensing of people leaving a space
@@AutomateYourLife I will give that a try. Thanks.
So many cool, things! Thank you :) Side note: I *loved* "My Side of the Mountain" as a kid :). Still do, actually :)
Ohhh that's so neat. I didn't know how old it was! My kiddo was so excited to get it.
@@AutomateYourLife Listen here you whippersnapper, it was old when I was a kid! :) (Which I admit, was long before you were born.)
@@AutomateYourLife The book was written in 1959. The movie came out in 1969.
Great tips as always, thank you
My pleasure!
Thanks for sharing Brian. 👍🏻
You bet! Thank you Ron!
Unfortunately, when the update on the Show 15 brought FireTV to it, Amazon made it so that the Show15 no long has access to the Amazon Recast device. Gone is access to local live TV or recorded TV on the Recast device. A huge step backwards.
There are some folks who don't like that aspect for sure
How do they keep adding new features and not fixing problems with the old ones? I still can't control my hue lights with amazon and they told me they know about the problem with the skill but have no time frame to fix it.
I think they have planned to let Matter fix any issues with the integration...but I've never run into anything. What's the issue?
Great video ! I love how alexa is evolving!
Thanks Houston! Keep on Automating!
33 seconds in and I used the first discussed feature through my excitement
Yessssss! That's a good one hey?
Doesn't seem to work in the UK. I just asked her to switch a light on for 10 seconds and she was oblivious
You can also say (with light or plug ON)
"Alexa, turn OFF light for 10 seconds". It will turn off immediately and turn back on in 10 seconds.
It works in Italy, weird it doesn't in UK.
@@SmartHomeHASHTAGS I wish
It's a pity a lot of these new features don't seem to have come to Australian users....Again!
Yeahhhh, stay tuned though Matt. Hopefully they come soon. It does seem like Australia's getting a little closer to US releases.
Not sure where I read this but is Amazon thinking about charging for Alexa use?
For AI based Alexa use. Their generative AI version, yes.
No ultrasonic setting available on any of my devices, uk?
Not yet I guess! You could always try a US account :)
No ultrasound capabilities and I am in the USA!
I must be using a different App - many of the options you show are not available in my app. (UK version)
In general you will see the UK features take a bit longer to come in. US is first, so just keep an eye out!
I reckon if you have a local Amazon warehouse in your country that you should have access to all of Alexa's features.
Thanks for finding these out for us! Do you know a way to make her Ding once per minute for 10 minutes, let's say? It would be great when doing my stretches rather than saying 'Alexa, 1 minute' and 'Alexa, stop' constantly. i can't seem to get her to do that. Not that I'm complaining about that being difficult, just keep looking for easier ways. Thanks!
I think you could put multiple waits in between her saying something! Try it out. Otherwise we might have to go deeper
@@AutomateYourLife Thanks, Brian! That works like a charm! You're my digital hero du jour. Cheers! 🙂
Could not set the CLOCK on the Gen 5 Echo Dot.
Set it based on the time zone in the app. Find the device, then go into its settings.
Amazon should make their smart speakers double as a wifi mesh extender.
Gen 4 and 5 do but only with Eros. They should make it noon-branded.
@@ajwalsh2603 Yep. I meant native OEM Echo Devices.
What AJ said ;)
ruclips.net/video/JgaRmPQSXPI/видео.html
@@AutomateYourLife Ahh should have figured you already have a video comparing the two options. Lol. Thanks!
Great job, Brian. Amazon Alexa seems to have become the Rodney Dangerfield of smart home systems, yet you've shown it has a number of features that are hard to duplicate with others. It supports Ring, YoLink, Roomba, and others not native to Homekit w/o Homebridge. It makes a nice complimentary system to others. With the use of virtual switches/devices that work simultaneously with both Alexa and Homekit, (or other systems such as ST, HA, etc.) you can have all sorts of automations that might be difficult in a single system. Hubitat is also a nice Alexa-compatible system that enables other competing systems to work together by having its devices work with others. Thank you, Brian.
Thank you Hugh! I sure hope everyone reads these comments, cause you're right about lots of those systems
Google has had the tunr on for xxxxx time for a while, but they keep breaking it. It works, then it stops working then it works again. I hope Amazon won't keep breaking it
Yeah! We can dream!
Readable books never went away.
They did for a lot of countries and a lot of people.
Merci Brian!
Thank you sir!
I do love the way you sound. haha
Ahahahaha!🤣🤣
I have Xiaomi M4 pro android 12,but I cannot call alexa when my mobile is off screen?? Will you help me with this😇
I don't think you can make that happen anymore, so...not much to help with
No respond from alexa when the screen is locked
The only feature I want to see is how to hack the echo show so that it doesn't show me ads
That's in here J - ruclips.net/video/lvORq5W58Ck/видео.html
@@AutomateYourLife thank you! I'll check it out now
I disconnected all the Spyware, don't need big Brother in my home. I developed my own device. Not connected to the web
Great! It'll be tough to keep up with patches for security, but that's the trade off. :)
Why can't we use Samuel L Jackson Amazon assistant mode in Canada? They've had like 3 years why is it not available?
Spiderman?!
I have no insight into why, but I'd bet it's simply what was paid for. Samuel needs his money
@@AutomateYourLife Actually my name is Peter Parker so I get the Spider-Man jokes a lot . When you're 45 and named after your father makes it a little bit worse . Neither one of us have any connection to the comic. Stanley Name the character after a person that used to deliver food to the studio that they were working at back when they created the character look up some of the documentaries where they talk about how they named their various characters back in the day you'd find it hilarious some of the characters are named after staff members children grandchildren grandparents you name it apparently some of it was even phone book pages and darts. Back when they started the hey Samuel feature for Alexa and it was rolled out for the US it was literally stated that it would soon be coming to Canada and other countries pretty sure of that was roughly 3 years ago I want to say and it still hasn't been released outside the US unless you go getting creative with a VPN type of work around and I don't feel that particularly text savvy. And it's not like you can just go shoot Amazon a text and ask hey what the heck . There were a couple of Disney related features that were supposed to be launched as well that I never heard more about from what I understand the features were originally used at Disney Resorts and they were supposed to be released on the Amazon global system and then never heard more about that. Honestly can't tell the difference between the Canadian voice and American female voice. Personally have mine set with the British voice which ironically gives you some little quirkiness with your Amazon device having British themed interests which was kind of unexpected and makes me giggle where I grew up watching British sci-fi and whatnot so I'm a little bit more familiar with a lot of stuff from Britain than the average Canadian so I actually understand what the thing is talking about most of the time when it starts jabbering something about British sci-fi or something along those lines like a British soccer team or less than commonly known British children's television that kind of thing. Honestly some of the stuff you come across by accident with those Amazon devices is hilarious that they sneak in there like Star Wars quotes and other movie quotes it even has a goofy message if you try and access the hey Samuel feature where it's not available in my region
Will occupancy know the difference between a pet and a human?
Sadly no, but if the pet is the silent type you won't have to worry about it ;)
Too bad they haven't added the one thing that drove me away from Alexa -- the ability to stop the "oh by the way..." follow-ups to commands. I want it to do what I say, not try to sell me more stuff or features. It's super annoying.
They did.
Say Alexa, Stop By The Way
Only works for a short period, then it reverts to being annoying again.
I guess my Dot 3’s are outdated.
A little, but you'll find a lot of the features will still come.
I can't ask her to turn a light on for x amount of time.. she just says "Sorry I don't know what went wrong" :(
That might be a temporary problem. However this is only in a few countries at the moment
Is this just in America
I'm in Canada :)
Not all features are available elsewhere, but you will find some are missing in other countries. US is usually first.
I discovered the "turn off after certain amount of time", totally by mistake.
That's a great discovery right there hey?
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
💗
My Alexa seems to have hearing problems she’s going deaf any ideas. she’s ignoring me it’s getting frustrating
Maybe it needs a bit of a clean around the mics?
Too much time spent in settings for my liking.
Them's the new features! Sorry!
@@AutomateYourLife
I was half joking. I appreciate videos like yours that explain everything clearly and take your time about it. Thanks for replying.
All good man! I am playing too!
😁
😁😁😁
Google gets flack for being slow and not capable but then Apple and Amazon add "new" features when Google has had that feature for years. Glad Amazon is catching up with Google's basic features
lol fair enough
How about multiple tasks in one command?
"Turn the living room on and everything else off." Why is that not possible? That's not a smart home. That's a shitty voice controler that's only usable with internet.
You can..lol.
@@AutomateYourLife I mean in the englisch voice commands Yes. German? No...
You don't have routines?
most of these "NEW" features are either months old to a year or more. thumbs down 👇
Name one! Everything I showed today I discussed directly with Amazon in the last 3 months
@@AutomateYourLife Roy might be a time traveler 😂. Thanks for the updates
That first one, people get that confused with turn on/off light (IN) 10 seconds. FOR 10 seconds is a different kettle of fish.