Been reading a few articles on Amazon and Echo devices like this one:
Thinking that Echo/Alexa may be on the way out… 
I read that as well. Concerning predicament. Wonder if it is because of Matter or really what they said.
I think a new business plan needs to be put in place and not do a subscription plan.
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Interesting read. And I totally get the lack of ability to make ongoing money. As we saw with Wyze, hard to stay in business strictly on low margin sales.
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Not sure it is doomed, but definitely a concern.
If I were them, I would focus on a real Dashboard option which you could customize. Since most of the Vendors have their devices as part of Alexa, it would be a home run IMHO.
Then the Shows would be the avenue to show the Dashboards.
Just a thought.
I guess I’m not following what you’re saying. What would a dashboard be on an audio only device? And your second line does not register at all…
Not audio only devices, the Echo Show’s which has the touch screens.
A lot of individuals have been wanting a more flexible Dashboard to control lights, unlock doors, stream cameras, etc. I do that with my 2 Echo Shows, but the iOT Dashboard is far from a dashboard.
But I do stream my cameras there and have a routine setup to automatically show my driveway when a person has been detected and then turn off in a minute. I also do this for my Wyze VDB Pro.
Found it interesting that Google faces a similar problem with their voice assistant. I do find it interesting that Wyze seems to be moving more towards Google and, seemingly, away from Amazon. At least with the bundles being sold.
Yea, they have always been selling the Nests. Maybe this is why.
Google is starting to show their new GUI as a preview. you supposedly can get it as well.
It is supposed to be more full featured. Not sure though, have not installed or played with it.
Hmm, clever. Me too. But how do you turn it off in a minute. I’ve not seen that done. And want to do it.
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2 routines to handle this. Both use the same trigger, routine 1 shows the Camera, Routine 2 says to wait 50 seconds and then the custom command to go home.
here are the Routines:
SHOW DRIVEWAY CLOSES STREAM
Here is a post I in Tips and Tricks did pertaining to this.
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Go Home. Got it. Didn’t even know it existed. You da master at this.
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The Echo Shows are mediocre. (I was going to say they stink.). They are extremely limited and can’t do a fraction of what a $40 tablet or old phone can do. But this is entirely due to artificial restrictions. They could be made as useful as a Fire tablet with a decent speaker, which of course is what they are.
Alexa has developed a wonderful ecosystem with buy in from every significant hardware vendor across home automation and entertainment and security. It would be insane to throw that all that hard work and mindshare and goodwill away - who do they think they are, Google?
I can’t really imagine what all those people were paid to do, though. The app itself sucks (a mess of poorly designed menus, hilariously randomly nested features, and complete unpredictability). The system was not know for stability or repeatability. Functions and keywords come and go at random.
Alexa and all the value it brings me certainly makes me a more sticky Amazon customer, even though like most people I’m not ever going to use it to order something.
They might be smarter to charge higher fees for vendor skill listings, or at worst case a small user subscription fee. The service is worth paying for. Also might help to have system architects with some kind of coherent vision.
This was brought up on Discord and Jimmy clarified that Google allows Wyze to list Google Bundles on the Wyze website, while Amazon requires Wyze only do them on Amazon, so they can’t do them on their website, but they do take advantage of Alexa Bundles on Amazon when Amazon allows it. In this case, Jimmy indicated that it’s not about Wyze having a preference or moving toward one or the other as much as it is what each will ALLOW them to do. But that we will continue to see bundles with both.
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