17 NEW Amazon Alexa Features You'll LOVE! 

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.

Glad you like them! Thanks Michael

My pleasure! Thanks Joe!

Thanks Big Bear!😃

Glad you like it!

Thanks!

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

Thanks Frank! I hope this is exciting for everyone!

My pleasure!

You bet! Thank you!

👍👍

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!

You bet! Thank you Ron!

Happy to help!

Thanks Houston! Keep on Automating!

LOL

Enjoy!

We could do this with the same routines. But it'd be tough if more than one person lives there.

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.

I don't know about in the UK specifically but I think Show Mode is available there yes!

Yep, create a group of speakers and then choose that

Not yet I guess! You could always try a US account :)

No ultrasound capabilities and I am in the USA!

That would be nice!

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.

Thank you Hugh! I sure hope everyone reads these comments, cause you're right about lots of those systems

Guess what?! It works properly now! (It didn’t when I tried it again just before I posted my first comment)

Yayyyyy!

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?

Thank you sir!

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.

I'll be creating an Alexa 101 type of video soon, so hopefully that can catch you up!

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....

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

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.

There are some folks who don't like that aspect for sure

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 😭

Alexa app, and it's now in Settings

Ahahahaha!🤣🤣

Yeahhhh, stay tuned though Matt. Hopefully they come soon. It does seem like Australia's getting a little closer to US releases.

Hopefully they get more rolled out around the world soon!

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

They did for a lot of countries and a lot of people.

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 ;) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-JgaRmPQSXPI.html

@@AutomateYourLife Ahh should have figured you already have a video comparing the two options. Lol. 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! 🙂

Yeah! We can dream!

I don't think you can make that happen anymore, so...not much to help with

For AI based Alexa use. Their generative AI version, yes.

Set it based on the time zone in the app. Find the device, then go into its settings.

A little, but you'll find a lot of the features will still come.

That's in here J - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-lvORq5W58Ck.html

@@AutomateYourLife thank you! I'll check it out now

I'm in Canada :) Not all features are available elsewhere, but you will find some are missing in other countries. US is usually first.

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

Yeah that's a baaaaad change. So frustrating

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! 😉👍🏻

That's a great discovery right there hey?

Sadly no, but if the pet is the silent type you won't have to worry about it ;)

That might be a temporary problem. However this is only in a few countries at the moment

💗

They did. Say Alexa, Stop By The Way

Only works for a short period, then it reverts to being annoying again.

Great! It'll be tough to keep up with patches for security, but that's the trade off. :)

😁😁😁

Maybe it needs a bit of a clean around the mics?

lol fair enough

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!

You can..lol.

@@AutomateYourLife I mean in the englisch voice commands Yes. German? No...

You don't have routines?

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.