How to use Alexa Together
Alexa is a fantastic tool for staying in touch with loved ones in addition to being a helpful voice assistant that can stream music, provide cooking advice, and answer any random inquiries that may come to mind. The designers behind Alexa have created an interactive and adjustable suite of capabilities for precisely that purpose, all housed under one roof, for those of us with loved ones who may need assistance and monitoring on a fairly regular basis.
The Alexa Together platform of abilities offers peace of mind for both remote careers and family members who desire independence and privacy as well as a helping hand (or several) when they may need it most. Alexa Together offers real-time activity monitoring and notifications to careers through the Alexa app, and it can be used with only one Echo device to perform a range of Remote Help tasks including setting up streaming services for loved ones and creating reminders.
This page explains the fundamentals of the platform, how to set it up and activate the service, and how to use some of Alexa Tog ether’s most useful capabilities. There are many things Alexa Together can accomplish.
How much does Alexa Together cost?
Following the free 30-day trial period, Alexa Together subscribers have the option of purchasing a $200 annual membership or a $20 monthly premium. Alexa Together will be accessible without charge to users of the Alexa Care Hub until December 7, 2022.
What equipment do you need?
Only the Alexa app and one Echo device—preferably an Echo Show—will be required by the person receiving remote care in addition to a dependable Wi-Fi connection. This is so that careers and Circle of Support contacts can use features like Drop In to make a video call to check in on loved ones from a distance. To achieve the best results, the client’s home should have a variety of Echo devices placed throughout it. In this manner, your loved one may simply communicate with Alexa without needing to go to a specific location in the house.
For Drop In reasons, it’s ideal for corers to also have an Alexa device like the Echo Show, but all that’s really required is access to the Alexa app.
How do you set up Alexa Together?
Both the career and the loved one must create separate Amazon.com accounts and link them to the same Alexa Together subscription in order to use Alexa Together. You can always register an account on someone else’s behalf if they are unable to do so themselves. To use the plan, the client will also need a single Echo device, which you can set up and activate if your loved one is unable to do so.
Simply buy the gadget you want them to have and have it sent to your house so you can set it up. Make sure to select the Gift option at checkout to prevent the Echo hardware from being automatically associated with your own Amazon account.
With two exceptions: you’ll be logging into the device using your loved one’s Amazon account and you’ll be adding your loved one’s Wi-Fi information to the Echo product without actually connecting to it, the setup process for your loved one’s Echo device is almost identical to that for activating a non-Alexa Together Echo product once you’ve received it.
After initial setup, go to Settings and click Network > Add a network. Next, enter the network information for your loved one and choose Save.
The only thing left to do after your loved one receives their Echo device is to turn on the Alexa Together plan. Go to the Alexa Together page to begin the procedure. After clicking the Start 30-day Free Trial button, you’ll be asked to input your payment information for the plan. Choose Activate Alexa Together after that.
You must select whether you are the support recipient or the care on the following screen. Then, if you’re the care, you’ll be asked to enter the name and Amazon email account of your loved one in order to send them an Alexa Together invitation. They must then open the email on their end, where they will be required to confirm a few details and give the Urgent Response team a contact address (more on that later).
What are some Alexa Together features?
Let’s look at some of the most helpful aspects of the platform and how you and your loved ones may utilize them now that we’ve covered the fundamentals of Alexa Together in terms of pricing, required hardware, and general setup.
Activity feed and customizable alerts
Knowing that your loved ones are up and active is one of the Alexa Together suite’s most significant peace-of-mind features. This assurance is made possible by a live Activity Monitor dashboard, which is intended to provide the person getting care privacy and independence while still letting the care know that everything is going about its business as usual.
Let’s assume that your elderly parent gets up and begins their day each morning at roughly 8 a.m. Alexa will include this Echo interaction in your shared Alexa Together activity feed if your loved one has the mental capacity to remember to say “Alexa, good morning” to their Echo Show every morning. Also, you may quickly set up a nice reminder for your elderly relative to greet Alexa in the morning.
To do this, open the Alexa app and navigate to the Alexa Together dashboard. Choose Tips > Learn more >. Make a remembrance. By selecting Reminder > Add reminder on the Remote Assist page (more on this below), you can also make reminders. From this point, you may choose the reminder’s start time, end date, and recurrence frequency.
Let’s assume that Alexa is not used beyond the predetermined time of 8 a.m. In this situation, Alexa Together will send a notification to the caregiver’s Alexa app informing them that their loved one hasn’t used their Echo device yet and giving them the choice to phone or utilize Drop In to talk.
The activity dashboard will keep track of all Alexa and third-party smart device interactions, including the starting of streaming music services, motion detected by a motion sensor or camera installed in the home, and even the activation of contact sensors to alert you when a loved one opens the medicine cabinet to take their daily pills. The care will only receive broad alerts from Alexa Together even though all of these reporting settings can be modified to only issue activity notifications during certain time periods. For instance, Alexa Together will record this activity as Entertainment even if your loved one may have asked Alexa to play a specific song from Spotify, with no mention of the music that was actually played.
By choosing See all activity, careers can now see all of the activity notifications for the current day as well as pings from past days.
Remote Assist capabilities
Caregivers will have access to a variety of Alexa Together features under the Remote Assist dashboard, which will seamlessly interact with the Alexa environment of their loved ones.
We’ve already talked about the useful Reminders feature, which lets you make one-time, recurring, and daily reminders that Alexa can use to ping your loved one’s Echo hardware with. The career can add friends and family to Alexa Tog ether’s Circle of Support and contact list by using the Contacts tab. You may personalize a number of features on your loved one’s Alexa Together-enabled Echo devices using Echo Device Settings, and you can fine-tune how your loved one hears and interacts with Alexa using Voice Answers.
Similar to Alexa’s standard shopping list feature, Shopping List enables you to add, delete, and edit things from a shared shopping list, and Music & Podcasts enables you to configure and manage various streaming services that a loved one can use with an Echo device.
Circle of Support
While one client and one career share a single Alexa Together subscription, the latter will have the ability to expand the Circle of Support, a list of emergency contacts, by adding more friends and family. In addition to Call and Drop In features (when and where appropriate) for contacting your loved one in an emergency, this will enable Alexa Together to send activity notifications and alerts to a variety of contacts besides the primary career.
At this time, you can add up to 10 Circle of Support contacts to an Alexa Together plan.
Around-the-clock emergency services and fall detection
The Alexa Together subscription includes access to 24-hour emergency dispatchers for your loved ones. Your loved one can effortlessly contact the platform’s on-call Urgent Response unit by saying “Alexa, call for help,” which will automatically notify the career and Circle of Support contacts that the Urgent Response team was called upon.
You may also connect a variety of fall-detection devices from different manufacturers to your Alexa Together system, including models from Vayu, Sky Angel Care, and Altium view. If a fall is truly detected, you’ll be alerted right away, and your loved one will be able to call the Circle of Support contacts and the Immediate Response team.
