Do you have an Echo? What do you use it for?

[nevets88]

The obvious stuff, play music, ask for time, information, weather, word definitions, I think it can play podcasts. The smart home stuff. Drop in - intercom. 

What else do you use it for?

[MrGolfguy67]

Companionship?

[DaveP043]

Sorry, the only echo I have is between my ears.

[lungbuster]

I have a new, unopened Echo v2 that my wife's grandmother gave me for Christmas.  I don't need the gubment having any more ears in my house than needed.  Truthfully, I've just never gotten around to setting it up.  My in-laws have one and my three-year-old loves to sit in front of it and say, "Alexa, fart."  Needless to say, it will and she laughs hysterically each time.

[Lihu]

We have a bunch of them. They control our lighting, and play music. We also have fire tablets for Alexa compatibility.

Of course, we have all kinds of other tablets  and on line devices all over the house too 😁

[Brad W]

primarily for lighting.  I was sold on the whole idea when I realized I could turn on my outside flood lights from our bedroom - something I had repeatedly wished the builders had considered during initial construction.

I've got a number of routines and/or groups set -

"upstairs" turns off everything downstairs for the night and turns on a couple lights upstairs

"home" turns on a variety of lights downstairs (I have a Dot in the garage)

"good night" turns everything upstairs off

"outside" turns on/off everything outside.  

 

I've got a skill setup to voice control the inside temp (connects to my Honeywell thermostat)

I just got new garage door openers and have managed to open one door with my voice, but it isn't reliable.  The skill wasn't created by the opener manufacturer, so I'm blaming that.

Just yesterday I plugged my dust collector (wood shop in garage) to a smart plug and am now able to turn on/off the collector with my voice.  This sounds basic, but when your shop is a multi-use garage where space is a premium, this is actually a really big deal.

I've dabbled in the Direct TV skill, but from what I can tell so far it is lame.  No surprise really, the developers at Direct TV haven't done anything impressive with their primary GUI in over 12 years.

Our six year old grandson loves it.  we have to remind him it isn't a toy

[dennyjones]

Yup, just bought one...      Pretty obvious use

Echo Trimmer