Disclaimer: I don't have one of these and don't particularly want one. The privacy concerns kinda creep me out. That said, I've been to friends homes and seen them use it.
As far as I can tell the primary use case for these things is to be <random place in your home> and then just say out loud "Alexa, set a timer for ....". I've heard that you can order stuff from Amazon also using your voice. I think a third use case starts with "Alexa, tell me a joke".
I'm assuming that there's other things you can do with these (and would love to know, if anyone's willing to share).
So - if the solution to the privacy concern is to walk over to the device and push a button then that seems to remove most of the usefulness of the device.
Speaking as someone who doesn't want one / doesn't have one of these things I can totally see how eliminating the "voice control from anywhere" feature leads to opting out of it.
(When I'm walking around my home I've always got my phone on me (which, to be fair, has a bunch of privacy concerns too) so I can more easily set a timer / buy something on Amazon / Google for jokes by fishing my phone out of my pocket and then using that, rather than walking over to push a button.)
(The "what else can you do with these" is a genuine question - if people are comfortable sharing I'd love to hear what you can do with these)
There's a lot of little use cases. Hand free cooking stuff (set a timer, home many tablespoons in a pint). Device control, faster to turn off a TV with voice than dig for the remote, or play a playlist/skip songs. None of those really save that much more time than the old fashion way, so concerns about privacy mean things get done the old way.
I know some people like having them in if they have frailty or mobility concerns, which is probably the only really new usecase.
Definitely. We can think of connecting such basic skills with more advanced skills too. The fact that Leon has a modular architecture makes it very flexible. We just need to let our imagination drives us.
I have Alexa, although I'm going to remove her and replace with a locally-hosted thing.
I've tied mine in with home automation stuff. So I can turn on and off lights using voice, even if I'm not at home. I sometimes forget to turn off my workshop and I can do that from anywhere.
I'd like to figure up a way to reset my internet, because I access cameras, and it goes out sometimes. I'm very sure this can be done.
I also use her for weather, although I'm annoyed about some of her limitations there, and I intend to get exactly what I want by coding. I want to be able to ask things like "when will it rain next", but Alexa can't do that.
She can also do reminders in a week or whatever, I use that some. And I ask very simple questions that she can query Google for, but honestly she's terrible at it.
I also think she's too verbose, even with verbosity turned down. She just goes on and on sometimes workout being asked--like instructions on resetting the routers if she can't contact Amazon.
I also try Google assistant and Bixby. I use my watch for a lot of the things you said you use your phone for.
Anyway I'm not happy with any of them. I plan to work a bunch on some skills as my next project, after the current one is done.
> I'd like to figure up a way to reset my internet, because I access cameras, and it goes out sometimes. I'm very sure this can be done.
Just get one of those controllable outlets that can be controlled locally, it'll allow you to power cycle your modem/router/wifi AP. Shelly.cloud makes one and it can be controlled through REST [0] with a call like http://192.168.0.40/relay/0?turn=on
I noticed that you referred to an AI with a disembodied voice as "her". Not that unusual, as sailors (even today) refer to ships as "her", and Davy Crockett named his rifle "Old Betsy".
But, it does beg the question: will you feel bad when you 'remove' her? (Will she? Shouldn't you ask?)
I have some skills idea for Leon after the official release. The idea is to centralize all of them into your own hardware that you control. Then Leon can be seen as a "second brain".
Let's say we build a budget tracker, then we can ask Leon "How much did I spend last month in groceries?". Mini apps are coming up on Leon, feel free to read the latest blog post, I'm sharing some thoughts on it.
We can also think of a tracker skill where Leon can understand your location habits. Like if you spend 10+ minutes at a specific place, then you can flag it as "gym". Then when you go to this place again, Leon will trigger a counter and count the time you are at the gym. The next week you can ask "Leon, how long time did I spend at the gym last week?". It can be gym, office, or anything you could think of.
Such use cases will be possible to make after the official release and the mobile client.
Half the reason I originally bought it was to simply be able to turn the light and fan on and off without getting out of bed.
The other half was music. Google Play Music was a godsend for a long time before they killed it. I can't stand Youtube Music and don't pay for other services, so I just don't use voice to listen to music anymore. Actually pretty angry and haven't given Alphabet a single cent since.
I ask it the weather every day. It answers 'when will it rain' with an hour and/or day of the week it might next.
I used to use it for relaxing sounds like rain, but one day they replaced the realistic rain sound with one that sounds to me like generated white noise only somewhat resembling rain, so it kind of annoys me now.
I constantly set alarms and timers for various reasons. Reminders and calendar events also, which sync with google services of course so I get them on my phone.
It can make notes. Any time I think of something in the shower and can't write it down I consider buying another one for the bathroom.
I can ask it where my phone is and it'll make it ring.
General queries are no more or less as good as what searching Google gives you at the top. Still useful when wondering something. I can ask it to define words or look for synonyms when I'm writing, without taking my mind away from the text. Or random stuff like 'what day of the week will September 22nd fall on,' 'how many days until Easter,' etc.
I frequently use it as a calculator. Easier to just speak a lengthy list of numbers than to type them all.
The most important thing about all of this is I don't have to move a muscle, and don't have to avert my eyes from what I'm focused on. Whether I'm passing out in bed, have my hands full while late for an appointment, or working hard at my PC, that's invaluable to me. Maybe not as important to everyone though.
Do I recommend Google's assistant specifically? Not exactly, but I don't like the other options either. Alexa will constantly break my train of thought by advertising what it can do with suggestions and whatnot, which is a main reason I don't use it, but my housemate doesn't mind. Other assistants just don't seem as polished and useful. Google's interoperability with my phone is a big reason I use it.
For $25 just get one for your desk and/or bedroom. There's still a lot of room to grow in this space before there's a better option without privacy concerns.
This is a good list of thoughtful, interesting uses.
I can totally empathize with not wanting to get out of bed in the morning, and getting it to ring my phone would actually be really useful. Like, embarrassingly useful :)
That's just one of several privacy concerns. It's possible to parse voice locally, as in TFA and eg Mycroft('s open source, self-hosted version, anyway), but for "some reason" mainstream assistants don't do it. Sure, you can hold a button, and Google will only hear about your timer request and nothing more, but some people find the idea of Google knowing when you're setting timers to be upsetting. Or at least worthy of avoiding.
Siri, G Assistant, Alexa, Bixby, Sonos all perform at least some locally. It seems the major issue is large dictionaries (eg music libraries) or complex queries. Most had an article about how basic features (times, smart home) work entirely on device.
If I have to hit a button to activate the voice assistant, that removes use-cases like "my hands are full but I want to turn on the smart lights" and "I'm cooking and want a timer, but my hands are too dirty." These are the use-cases where the tool really shines because it has no competition.
Without such a use-case, the tool gets put in the back-of-mind. Sure it might be marginally easier to use than swiping and poking, but my mental model of using the phone is already swiping and poking.
