Amazon needs to sort out Alexa to keep its smart home crown

OPINION: The Amazon Echo, and Alexa, were the devices that really kickstarted the smart home revolution. Before these smart speakers, smart home devices were more the domain of the technically advanced, happy to spend a long time fiddling to get things working.

Alexa came along, and suddenly, it was easy to have all of your devices in one place, controllable via voice and simple routines.

While Alexa is, arguably, still the best smart home platform, it’s not perfect and to stave off the competition, here’s what Amazon needs to do.

Make the app easier to browse

There have been some improvements to Alexa over the years, but the app is still a bit of a mess and isn’t always the most logical to browse. Want to find out which Skills you’re running? That’s under More, Skills & Games, then scroll to the bottom of the page and then hit Your Skills. Why isn’t this easier to find?

The Devices page is also a mess. A layout with devices in thumbnails, organised by room, as with SmartThings or Apple Home would make more sense. As it is, the device page is a bit of a mess, and the list of devices isn’t sorted alphabetically; it seems as though new devices are at the top, followed by an alphabetical listing of devices. A device search tab has made things easier, but a cleaner interface would help.

In short, the Alexa app needs an overhaul to make its layout simpler, putting device control front and centre, as with the main rivals.

Improve what you can do with Routines

Alexa Routines are generally very powerful, offering lots of triggers and options. However, there are some limitations that I just don’t get. For example, if I want to turn off an alarm when a door is unlocked, then I can’t. Amazon says that this is for security, and disarming or unlocking requires a voice PIN.

However, a smart lock is a secure device, so if one is unlocked, then that demonstrates security, which should allow me to turn off an alarm. I can disarm an alarm system in Apple Home, so there is precedent.

Prevent duplicate devices

This one is mostly aimed at Philips Hue users, but the problem of duplicates is a nightmare. I’ve added Hue to SmartThings, and then SmartThings to Alexa. As I already have the Hue Skill added (it’s better than the Matter integration at the moment), my lights all appear twice, so I manually have to disable the duplicates, which is time consuming.

There used to be an option in SmartThings to limit which devices Alexa can see, but either Amazon or Samsung changed this option.

Duplicate items are mainly a Hue problem but they are an issue for any device that has its own skill and that is also available via a third-party system that’s also in Alexa or that have also been added via Matter. An automatic way to detect and disable duplicates would help.

Make it easier to bulk delete devices

If you have multiple devices you want to remove, Alexa doesn’t make getting rid of them easy. First, I’d expect that removing a Skill would also remove all associated devices, only it doesn’t.

It’s no good removing a device only as if you have the Skill enabled, Alexa just auto-detects the devices and adds them back. So, I have to remove the Skill and then find and remove all of the associated devices.

In general, if I want to remove multiple devices, the only way to do it is to select each one in turn, then hit the delete button. This really should be easier, and the discontinued web interface at least used to make this job a bit easier.

Force smart device integrations to have touch controls

When using a Skill, each manufacturer can choose which controls are available in the app, and there’s a huge variance in control, despite two devices both being ‘compatible with Alexa’.

For example, a Dyson Purifier Hot+Cool Formaldehyde has controls in the Alexa app that largely mimic those in the Dyson app. This makes this device easy to control with voice, the Alexa app or routines.

A MeacoCool MC Series 9000 Pro air conditioning unit provided me with no in-app control, limiting what I can do using the Alexa app or routines. Clearly, individual device control with a high degree of granularity is possible, so it’s high time Amazon forced companies to provide better support.

Improve the touch interface on all Echo Show devices

The Amazon Echo Hub is a brilliant device. Realising that voice control isn’t always the fastest or most convenient option, the Echo Hub provides a touch-screen way to control the smart home, similar to (but cheaper than) a Control4 system.

Why, then, isn’t the Echo Hub’s interface available for all Alexa smart displays, such as the new Echo Show 21?

There’s also a secondary issue. Unless a device manufacturer provides proper touchscreen controls via their Skill (or the device is connected via Matter), there can’t be a touchscreen interface for it. Again, it’s another reason to get device manufacturers to improve Alexa support.

Turn off the barrage of notifications

Set up a new Echo Show or Echo and the first thing you’ll want to do is go in and turn off all of the annoying adverts and notifications that Amazon insists on sending. Particularly on the Echo Show devices, the default settings are annoying, causing the screen to constantly change.

I particularly don’t like the way that the devices can scan your network to try and sell you consumables. For example, I had an Epson printer, and I’d constantly get notifications on my Echo Show telling me that I needed to buy new ink.

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