6 Reasons Older Adults Are Loving Amazon's Alexa

Smart speakers like Amazon's Alexa have become incredibly popular with older adults. For people living alone, it's a companion. For people struggling with physical limitations, it's a great helper. Alexa can even be used to improve safety for seniors. Thousands of skills on the Alexa App are targeted specifically for older adults. And plenty of general use skills can make life easier and more entertaining for seniors. Check out a few of these ideas for using Alexa to make your day a little easier.

6 Ways American Seniors Can Get More from Amazon's Alexa

1. "Alexa, Can You Repeat That?"

   You can ask Alexa to repeat what she just told you. Whether your speaker volume is too low or you're too far away to hear her well, Alexa is very happy to make sure you got the answer to your question. Just say, "Alexa, can you repeat that?" and she'll give you the answer again. If this happens a lot, read to learn about voice training your Alexa.

2. "Alexa, What Did You Hear?"

   If Alexa gives you an answer and you're not sure what she heard to produce that result, you can ask, "Alexa, what did you hear" and she will tell you what she thinks you asked.

3. Control the Volume

   If the volume was too low, you could say, "Alexa volume up", and it will increase the volume by one increment at a time. Or you can say "Alexa, volume five" (or six or wherever you need it up to ten).

4. Whisper

   Alexa has a whisper mode, so if you need to talk to her during the night, you can whisper a command, and she'll whisper back. This is especially handy for activating the night light if you're not alone in your room.

5. Night Light

   Your Alexa Dot can be activated as a night light. To do this:

   1. Search the Alexa App > Skills section for "night light". 

   2. Enable one of several skills that will turn on the light ring of your dot when asked.

   3. Check out Night Light by the developer labworks.io.

   4. When you're done, whisper "Alexa, stop," and the light goes off soundlessly.

6. "Alexa, Call for Help"

   Once you give Alexa access to your contacts, she can help you with many calling-related activities. Try this post on enabling contacts to review the setup.
   
   You can set up an emergency contact from your contact list. When you say "Alexa, call for help," she'll call the person identified on their selected mobile device.

With all these fun and useful features, it's no wonder everyone is enjoying using their smart speakers for everything from weather to recipes to games. Best Innovation Group recognized early that voice was about to become the dominant way for people to interact with computers. The ability to talk to our technology removes barriers and friction in nearly every interaction. That's why conversational banking has been such a high-priority solution. Taking something we all need to do and making it easier is the essence of The Power of Voice.