Top critical review
1.0 out of 5 starsLights wake you up at night, software is annoying for neurodivergent people.
Reviewed in the United States on December 18, 2023
Honestly the functionality is fine. The speaker works, basic questions can get answered, alarm function is good, connection to Spotify is pretty good, etc. The clock works just fine, but even though it dims at night, it's still way too bright.
The review below this paragraph was written for the Echo Pop, but as the software is the same, it 100% applies to this device as well. I dislike the software of the Pop, but the Dot I truly hate as a whole package. Don't put it in a bedroom if you value your sleep at all. We've been awakened several times by lights. Once a bright yellow light came on and we had no idea why. All of our notifications are turned off. When we tried to ask why it glowed yellow, it said it had no answer for that. Apparently updates can make it go bright blue, and it has a few times. The most annoying is when the power goes out. The light can light up several times as it powers back up, then attempts to reconnect, and attempts to reconnect, and attempts to reconnect... (the WiFi gets knocked out, too, so sometimes it can take a while for everything to get moving again). I finally unplugged the thing one night last week when we were having intermittent power outages and the next day I ordered a new clock for the bedroom. (We've had the Dot since April and it is now December, so we've put up with a lot hoping it would get better.) The voice has only come on once in the night, but the lights seem to have a mind of their own. 100% CANNOT recommend for a bedroom.
Our issue is the constant tweaking and changing that occurs in the software itself. It really does appear that Alexa is programmed to constantly figure out new ways to bother you. It reminds me of a loud kid's toy that sounds like it's off and then suddenly yells out, "DON'T YOU WANT TO PLAY WITH ME?!" Amazon doesn't seem content with allowing Alexa to be something that sits on your desk and functions the way you want it to function, without bothering you in any way. They haven't made something that can just sit on your desk and function the way you ask it to function.
We have every single notification turned off, we've turned on "brief mode" which is supposed to make Alexa speak as little as possible. Still, no matter what we do, Amazon seems determined to program Alexa to ask us questions for every question we ask, sometimes completely out of left field. It's like the thing gets more and more desperate to be useful beyond the functions we've designated. At first, when asking for the weather today, it would constantly ask if we wanted the weather for the whole week. No. I said today because I want today's weather. Eventually that stopped, but then it started asking completely random stuff. The most recent one was, after asking the weather, it asked if I want to be updated on new movies as they come out. What? It's ridiculous. If I want the weather, now I just Google it.
Setting timers, same thing. You'd think set a timer, how easy it is. No, it asks questions about entertaining you while you wait. Or other random things that have nothing to do with what you just asked. No, please just set a timer. If I don't have one handy and I need a timer now, I just have Google do it.
My daughter was really enjoying asking how many days until Christmas and her birthday, and for a long time, Alexa would give the number of days. Now it has switched to months and weeks. I didn't ask how long until this event. We specify "how many days" and now no matter how I ask the question, some programming change has made it impossible to get the number of days. My daughter's little morning ritual is gone. She loved asking and hearing the reply, but now I just Google it and she's learning to read the numbers instead. Even with those very simple questions, though, it would ask things like "would you like to hear a Christmas joke?" No. I just want to be told the number of days and then have the device go quiet.
There are many other little issues here and there. For a while, brief mode seemed to stop all of that, but it's back full force and I can't figure out how to shut it off. Probably many neurotypical people won't understand how stressful it feels, but not knowing if the device will just be silent after I ask my question, and never knowing what it will say or ask makes me never want to use it. My autistic son unplugged his because he couldn't stand it, either. I thought it would be so helpful, and I bought multiples for our house, but honestly there are plenty of other options out there for all of the functionality of this thing when I need it. I was hoping it could be centralized in one thing, but in their desperation to make the Alexa devices oh-so-useful and indispensable, Amazon has made them annoying, especially for anyone with any kind of neurodivergence.