Alexa Plus? Anyone else try it, and go back to "original" Alexa?

[mrsilv04]

I tried Alexa Plus, and found it to perform much worse than the "original" Alexa, for how I use it. I tried and gave Plus about two weeks, and came to the conclusion that it wasn't going to get any better. I was able to try it for free since I am a Prime member. I can't imagine paying $19.99 a month for something that bad.

I gave up, went back to "original" Alexa, and I am much happier. If Amazon forces Alexa Plus (without any improvement) onto their users, then I will walk away from it all.

I tried. Anyone else try it? Anyone actually like Plus?

 

[dogememe]

I don't use anything in the Amazon ecosystem in my house but we have some Google Home devices and I recently updated them from the "original" Google Home platform to the new Gemini-powered one.

HUGE improvement in voice recognition and reliability of the commands actually working but HOLY COW ITS SLOOOOOOOW. Then again these are Google Home minis that are many years old so it's probably my fault. But asking it to turn the lights on or off takes about 5-10 seconds.

Before it would either do nothing if I didn't speak clearly or loudly enough or be like I don't understand. Now it always understands and works... I'm just standing there for a bit waiting for the lights to come on haha.

 

[wavinwayne]

I have it, and can find no way in which it works better than the original. It still says "playing xyz song on Tunein" when I didnt even ask it to play a song, much less on Tunein which I dont use. It ignores my wife's prompts frequently. She hates Alexa. I only use it to turn on/off lamps and to ask it the weather, and occasionally for music.

 

[mrsilv04]

I have it, and can find no way in which it works better than the original. It still says "playing xyz song on Tunein" when I didnt even ask it to play a song, much less on Tunein which I dont use. It ignores my wife's prompts frequently. She hates Alexa. I only use it to turn on/off lamps and to ask it the weather, and occasionally for music.

Revert back. "Alexa, end early access."

 

[Pablo]

I changed one Alexa to a man's voice. A chap with an east Indian accent to make the experience more realistic.

 

[AandPDan]

Dropped it after a few days. Couldn't stand it.

 

[xspeedy]

I have it enabled. I’m not much one for words, and the biggest thing I would like is to set a personality in addition to voice. I want more direct answers to things. For the weather, just tell me the basics. I don’t need to hear “Today will be a beautiful day” and all the fluff. I just want current temp, and high, low, sun.

I found the old one useless for anything outside of weather, timers, reminders. I used Google for anything more.

 

[Johnny248]

Am I the only one who started reading this and was thinking I was reading a thread on caulk?

 

[mrsilv04]

Am I the only one who started reading this and was thinking I was reading a thread on caulk?

In the "Consumer Electronics" forum?

 

[bdcardinal]

I tried it when it first came out a few months ago and reverted back after about 10 minutes. I didn't like the new voice or the way it went about telling me things that weren't direct and to the point. I mostly use it to ask the time when I wake up in the middle of the night. Also having a few lights around the house voice controlled and it saying that someone is at the door through the Ring cameras is pretty handy. Other than that, the Alexa+ is a steaming pile.