Introducing Alexa Together
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Looking after an aging loved one doesn’t have to be limited to a small number of people. Amazon’s “Alexa Together,” which relies on Alexa Care Hub, now has an answer for that by allowing up to 10 caregivers on the subscription. The new feature called “Circle of Support” will allow the aging loved ones to get more support through a single subscription. It is now available to all Alexa Together subscribers.
“…many others who rely on the support and love from their caregivers—can get comfort knowing their loved ones can easily check in on them through the activity feed in the Alexa app,” says Amazon in its blog post. “They also know that if they ever need help, they can reach the Urgent Response emergency helpline at any time of the day—hands free.”
The feature will allow the aging person who owns Alexa Together and the main caregiver to add (or remove) more “circle members” or caregivers within the service. Depending on the connection of the individuals, the circle members can be anyone capable of checking on them. The new members can be a cousin, siblings, friends, neighbors, or more. The member can also constitute the spouse of the main caregiver. All added circle members will get important notifications, like daily alerts, on their devices.
On the other hand, Amazon says that it will soon allow the primary caregivers to remotely arrange the Alexa Routines of the aging person via the device’s “Remote Assist” feature. This means the caregiver will be able to program Alexa to perform a series of actions for the elderly. This makes things automatic for the person and saves them from exerting too much effort to manually give orders to Alexa, such as turning off an alarm, getting information about the weather, or turning on or off the bedroom lights.
“Primary caregivers will be able to set up Routines for their aging loved ones just like they do on their own accounts, like turning on all of the household’s smart lights at sunset or setting up a goodnight Routine where Alexa will turn off smart lights and play sleep sounds,” Amazon says. “Amazon will automatically send an email about the newest Routine to the aging loved one so they are informed whenever a new Routine is set up.”
Alexa includes other helpful features both for the elderly and the caregivers, such as fall detection response functions, an emergency helpline, an activity feed to inform the loved ones if the aging loved one is active, and more. It will also send notifications if there is no activity during specific periods to alert the loved ones to check on the elderly.
The subscription works on all devices supporting Alexa, such as Echo Dot, Echo Show, and Echo. It can be a part of a device bundle deal from the company or as an additional subscription.