Why I Have Lost Faith in Amazon and Alexa

[@speedracer9132]

You shouldn’t defend yourself for sounding bitter, these are all facts of how bad amazon’s hardware has gotten, and you didn’t even open the can of worms about what they’ve done with ring

[@garethjones5068]

When my current Alexa devices reach the end of their life, I won’t be replacing them that’s for sure

[@MN_Engineer]

I'll keep the devices I have, but don't plan on buying anything new.

[@loum.4377]

Alexa has become horrible. Every time I ask for her to play my playlists she plays garbage that sound similar.

[@ryan.swanstrom]

I am noticing this with my Fire TV, now ads all over the place,. When I pause a show, an ad covers the screen

[@aramistech]

Everything you said in this video is correct. Thank you for making it. These corporations used to serve their customers and it was a symbiotic relationship, and now these corporations see you as a number and a product they can use to collect data from. Just look at the insurance companies raising your prices then conveniently offering deep discounts if you put a device in your car so they can track you or put an app on your phone. What evil, soulless behavior we are seeing from all these corporations

[@michaelmaliga815]

The gap between what consumers want and what tech companies want them to want just keeps getting wider. Whether it is products from Amazon and Apple, or protocols like Matter and Z-Wave, it seems like companies just can't hear what potential customers are very clearly asking for and insist on giving something else instead.

[@Lord-Of-Light]

Your mistake was trusting Amazon in the first place. I was 16 when I started buying smart devices years ago, and I even then knew then that Amazon was not to be trusted.

[@cjxgraphics]

Amazon is still absolutely customer focused. But we are no longer the customers, advertisers are.

[@CraigsTechTalk]

I like that. You nailed it. Thanks for watching and sharing.

[@johnnygoni7402]

These companies are what we let them be, I'm in the process of switching from Alexa to homepods mini, I'm done with Alexa, I'm tired of ADDS....

[@coriel2597]

I just asked Alexa to “chat with me”. She said. “ The chat feature is no longer available “. Wow last month she said that “ she will chat soon”. Something has happened. The chat idea is dead? What? Do you know where that stands? Funny that I asked her this morning before I saw your video!

[@Bigglare]

Reason 1. Matter is King.

[@ds99]

I no longer watch Amazon Prime video because of the ads they’ve stuffed in. I’m so disappointed that they did that. Not only did they do that but they raised the cost of Amazon Prime membership. Frig. They are really putting the screws to us.

[@20NewJourney23]

I got rid of my Echo Show 8 because I was tired of seeing all the advertisements. I bought an Echo Dot and then an Echo Pop. I use them for alarms, reminders, and timers. I don't pay for premium features.

[@speedracer9132]

Not that they’re much better, but google has also been removing services: just one example is the displays used to proactively show traffic to upcoming planned destinations, there are many others like recipes and plenty promises that never came true like ability to send sms from voice assistants

[@mikldude9376]

Yes I think Google also removed the trivia games too which is a bit of a bummer😊, it does seem like they are removing features from one area to perhaps make room on their servers for the AI stuff ? It comes back to the mighty dollar, all these big companies know where their next payday is coming from.

[@pug_63]

I’m an Apple gal, but interested to hear your opinion. Thanks, as always.

[@Rom2814SK]

I’m done with them and angry about it. Commercials on Prime Video, commercials on my echo show. Alexa just keeps getting more dumb and has had, from my experience, NO improvement in years. Awful company and awful products.

[@johnnyhomekit]

A renaming off their products might be necessary... Echo Slow, Echo Flub, etc.

[@mongo2044]

Quick separate tip to limit ads on echo shows. Set do not disturb to last 23 hours, 59 minutes. With the only free 1 minute in the middle of the night. This eliminates them. Mostly. One will sneak in for a flash when you wake it from sleep as the ads just seem to be covered but still feed to the echo. Genius coders at Amazon… You do, of course, loose anything that do not disturb hides or delays! Since, as Craig said, the echos are mostly junk that do not integrate with anything now in any worthwhile way, no big deal for me and most people.

[@Noideastoned]

At no point did these companies see anything other than a means of making profit. They are companies,they are not people, they only exist to make profit and that is all they exist for. As long as the share holders are happy the customer is incidental. It matters not what the company is called Amazon, Apple, Tesla or place company name here [apple is my master]. Profit is the motivator and the bigger the company the bigger the motivator seems to be. All we are and will ever be is a source of labour and profit.

[@studiolusk]

I couldn't agree with this more regarding Amazon and the Alexa-based hardware/services over the years. It has definitely become a snowball effect over the years that has gotten out of control in the worst way possible.

[@MYJ61]

I saw Amazon’s head say he’s very confident that they will start charging for Alexa services in the future.

[@joshuakolton9955]

Yeah man Apple isn’t much better but their smart home system is so much better than Alexa simply for no ads although we still don’t have HomePods with screens yet.

[@fitdude]

I have an iPhone I charge in landscape mode so it turns into a nightstand screen...that's getting close.

[@AntNoAngle]

The echos in my house are going haywire. I have problems that I have never had before. I’m writing it off as them doing something on the back end to prepare for the AI. My whole house runs on Alexa, so it’s extremely annoying.

[@macbitz]

I detest advertising, I use ad blockers and never click on any ads that do get through. I'd happily pay an annual subscription to not see ads anywhere but that'll never happen.

[@thomask1424]

I recently bought an Echo and a Spot. They're simplistic - what time is it, turn on/off light, what's the temp - but also pretty unobtrusive. I occasionally get a"you last odered cat food on xx/xx, shall I re-order?" "Play X music" plays random music, like a radio station which is ok if you just want some background noise but if you ask for some specific piece it asks you to sign up for Premium. The Spot replaced my bedroom alarm clock and that works a treat.

[@Nanoscot]

Google has become really lazy but there are no ads. Hard wear across the board is crap now not one of them are working for the customer anymore.

[@fitdude]

Isn't Apple still working for the customer? They are the exception, and they also charge more for their devices because they don't offset the cost with advertising.

[@jayfink2199]

Why did you ever trust information sprunging monopolistic super-corporations in the first place? Having one is basically having a G.O.D. in your house watching you all the time. North Korea would salivate at the idea!

[@houstonshomeautomation3524]

Craig, long time fan. I ended up Getting rid of my echo show 15 in my echo show 10 in the other room. Simply because I was sick of ads. I simply replaced all the monitors in my house with Fire TV sticks. So I can still get my live feeds From my video cameras

[@johnmarshalward]

I have 3 Dots, 1 Show, 1 Flex, a Belkin Speaker and a thermostat with Alexa built in, 4 Fire TV Sticks and I've been looking for a way out.

[@rternowski]

What ecosystem would you suggest to use to replace Amazon?

[@Ktulubass]

Never thought that the echo screen devices would face the same faith as CHUMBY devices, I have 3 screen echos and 3 speakers but two years ago I disconnected the smart speakers and 6 months ago I ditched the screen echos because of the annoying ads. Seems sad that the customer is not their priority at amazon

[@matthew-lawrence]

I've been dumping my amazon hardware on ebay due to the ridiculous level of ads. even echo the speakers. Moving over to Apples home ecosystem with home assistant as well. Pretty much dumped google/nest gear as well.

[@DocAtCdi]

I dont disagree with your perspective, but I have the ability to limit some of the data I give them. and if you are not talking about thier products in a reasonable way any more, I dont have a reason to watch you, if you think apple is less intrusive, you are just being silly. Good Luck to ya!

[@mindblockandroid]

I’ve had a very positive experience with my echo devices. I use them for simple smart home activities, like controlling lights, cameras, the front door and one AC unit. Apart from that, I use them for amazon music. One echo show in the kitchen I ocasionally usw for youtube and the fire tv cube is for an assortment of streaming services. But so far the experience has been rock solid. I’m not being served any ads, but I am in El Salvador. Anyways, even if they did serve ads I wouldn’t really notice them much.

[@chrisedwards5447]

Honestly they could just allows us to create our own 2D map and let everyone use map view. But nooooooooo, pop out your camera and scan your whole house.

[@divaincantare]

I agree with you. The only reason I still have my echo show 5’s because I wanted a screen to see who was at the doorbell and it controls my lights and locks. All I want it to do is show the clock and when someone is at the doorbell, not all those stupid ads.

[@Barot8]

Thank you Craig. Totally agree. Worse they basically destroyed their app. It hasn't had any real updates that were great. Same with their music player app. I think making the AI as a paid service is idiotic.

[@Jon-qz2qj]

The fact that the Amazon mobile app has been extremely buggy and still doesn’t have a dark mode for years now is ridiculous. They had a small aesthetic update recently but the problems are still prominent. It really shows the disconnect between the consumers.

[@druzod_]

Completely agree with all of this. I’ve been slowly replacing all my Amazon ecosystem smart home stuff with things that are HomeKit compatible.

[@devonm8043]

Anthropic has been blowing past OpenAI on many fronts

[@JamesGowan]

I cannot turn off ads to my SHOW! Ticks me off! I’m leaving Amazon Echoes and Shows

[@durtydeedsREI]

What advice would you give someone that has mostly Amazon/Alexa stuff in their ecosystem?

[@kellybrady4229]

Yep, the Alexa products have only gotten worse; I've had several since they let us buy a discounted beta version of the original Echo. Besides not recognizing my voice (slight southern accent), the slightest background white noise and they are unusable. It's perplexing why if I'm standing a foot away and facing a full size Echo ball w/hub, and tell it something, like setting a timer, a smaller echo in another room or other side of the house responds - but not the one I am facing and speaking to a foot away. Further, the extremely annoying "helpful" "by the way..." advertisements or unwanted messsages are the main reason why I'm probably going to walk around the house soon, collect all the echos, and toss them in the garbage.

[@DrewShafer66]

Our evolution regarding Amazon and Alexa are very similar. I went through the same progression of trust as Craig.

[@adversHandle]

biometrics are usernames not passwords maybe scan your plam and then enter your code to pay no phone or card needed sure but never use the palm to authenticate

[@cree8ion401]

appreciate your insight

[@dj-bn1fj]

I'm tired of Amazon Video services due to ads on TV Shows now and renting movies and shows that I cannot filter out during my search. I have other streaming services with the same movies and tv shows that are free. Also finding 2 days service is more a 4 to 7 day service now using USPS. Walmart has next day service in my area and most of the time cheaper than Amazon.

[@Valehass]

This could be a Plex issue but given everything you just said I'm thinking its more likely an Alexa issue. I use to be able to Play music from my Plex server to multiple Echo that were already paired and they do work, with music from Amazon. Now When I ask it to play it either doesn't work at all or only works with one echo. Tried factory resets, deleting old echo groups, repairing nothing works. One day it worked fine the next it stopped.

[@ricardobranch1375]

Wow! All the points in this video I agree with.

[@WhatSRV]

One of my favorite things with the devices are the routines. To me they are better than say Google in that regards. Just like another user said, on the shows put it on do not disturb helps a lot. I have everything disabled and just show pictures that I want. But definitely not scanning the house or going somewhere and using their biometrics.

[@kimbysim]

I agree with everything you mentioned. I really miss the guard feature that linked with ring alarm. When set to away it would change lights to look like im home. I think it would make dog barking sounds too if my outdoor camera detected a person. I allready pay for the alarm why shoukd I also pay for emergency assist? Slowly but surely moving away from alexa and toward local.

[@SeanReigle]

Pay with palm has been available for years...

[@eriklundstrom1336]

I've mostly switched to Homepod, but have one echo in my bedroom and .... it takes 3-5 tries almost every time for it to hear the wake word. Then half the time it doesn't hear the commands after the wake word correct. I'm planning on replacing that as soon as the next gen of homepods come out.

[@ronm6585]

Thanks Craig.

[@BenedictChrysosthomos]

After 25 years I‘m done with that now shitty company.

[@Strawman333]

I hope that you never had “faith” in them ever.

[@eldkir]

I was hoping that they would develop the interaction with other apps like... "Alexa, place an order for my favorite coffee from Dunkin Donuts."

[@garyhenderson9303]

I started loosing faith with their Ring Cameras asking for my address and also in which direction the camera is pointing. With my neighbors this allows them to generate a complete seamless coverage of the neighborhood to give them something like the tracking found in the Film Enemy of the State. Then the failure of the Echo Show 15 which had so much potential but failed to deliver. If someone wanted to place a huge advertisement sign in my Garden they would pay me rent to do so, but Amazon wants to place advertisement inside my home for free or to avoid it I have to pay!! They where ahead of the game in so many areas but failed to develop further. Instead each year a new device gets a minor tweak and because they offer them so cheaply on Prime days its an easy investment to purchase the new one hoping that this version is going to be the one to deliver. The echo show HUB showed how little interest they have in products if it cannot display adverts. Will only miss my echo Studio when it retires as it is great for listening to the radio.

[@Davidsama]

Where do I stand? Well I think it’s time to start listing my echo devices for sale and purchase more Amazon stocks. The subjections and advertising is getting out of hand and it will only get worse.

[@SolarizeYourLife]

I lost faith in Amazon… Dude is the amazon smart home local???

[@williammartinez8381]

Hey Craig, as always a great video. I definitely agree with you, Amazon needs to scan our entire home just to make a 2-D map personally that’s something that I think no one would do because it is an invasion of privacy. And to tell you the truth, I think that is why Amazon is failing because unlike Apple and Google privacy is there main and only concern keep up the great work and enjoy next week off.

[@gracesuarez3154]

I’m so glad you said this! I thought it was just me!

[@jackdeyes]

I’m so glad that I for rid of my Echo when I did. I ended up getting a HomePod Mini and I’ve never looked back

[@adamemay]

I threw my echo dot out this summer and bought a Homepod and two minis. Switched my default browser and search to Brave. Swapped my doorbell cam to one that supports HKSV. Soon I'm switching to iPhone. To your point, I trust apple way more than Google or Amazon.

[@MrDroidmonkey]

Nailed it, my friend.

[@rotunnoe]

I purchased my Alexa devices to control my smart home. I feel that I can’t even do that properly anymore. Half the time it can’t understand the commands. I give it. The rest of the time it’s responding from the wrong device. How is it performing worse now on the same hardware than it did two years ago. I can’t be the only one experiencing this.

[@movingloz]

100% agree and it’s a bit sad hey. Apple is the one that I am worried about too atm. Tim has done great making it worth a fortune but there is no innovation whatsoever, unless you count the Vision Pro that flopped because of the price. They do hardly anything in the Apple Home front. The car project they torched. Etc. , etc.

[@bkstarkey]

There are very few companies out there that are customer focused anymore.

[@SnowyPe]

Im done with Amazon.

[@TheLbenjamin]

I am done, I will never buy another video Alexa device. I am so sick of the advertising. All I really wanted was for it to display the time and my pictures and every time I look at the device it’s either advertising something or making suggestions or notifications about things I might be interested in, I also have Google hub devices. They don’t have any advertising. They just display my pictures and the time but they haven’t updated anything in a while. I wish Google would continue working on that project. The only reason I’m forced to keep some of these devices is they are the voice interfacefor my automation systems in my house

[@72dodge340]

We sold all but 1 of our Alexa devices a couple weeks ago at a garage sale... cheap. Just done with them. I did keep the Fire for the TV for now, but doing research now, and moving on. Honestly, I was never that impressed with it. Never seemed to work right, would just randomly start talking about random things way too often, even when no one was talking. Dealt with sketchy performance for years, way too long. Bye Amazon!

[@rohittkrr]

I will wait for apple to bring AI to homepod and I will replace all echos. apple maybe difficult to work with in terms of compatibility and general knoweldge, but at least it's more relaiable

[@RogerThat902]

You nailed it. Thank you.

[@litus92]

Not defending Amazon here, but Anthropic is one of the big AI companies with Claude which, for some uses cases, it’s better than chat got

[@rohittkrr]

they removed todoist integration now I can't add stuff to my list and forced to use the native shopping list

[@ritcheacosta10]

Its the opposite for me though, im just a starter of home automation, Im using smartthings a my primary hub and i find Alexa to be more suitable voice trigger since the devices in smartthings are interacting well with Alexa App...., they have Scene that comes from other platforms that u can activate in, they have NFC to triggers... tons of option compare to google home app.... I do have hub a bunch of Google Home speakers, minis and hub (bought 2nd hand)... google nest hub is good for monitoring... but not for routines and automation.... i go for Alexa, It may be a different talk if i start to learn Home Assistant

[@wktaylor11]

i call BS on them bleeding money. More like they're covering other divisions with it. 25 billion? really? Sure.

[@vveso]

Do you have any recommendations to switch to if you currently have a amazon based smart house? As a android user, would google devices be my only option at this point?

[@mfinite689]

Refused Alexa from day one. Amazon gets enough of my personal information; they don't need even more. For every advancement in technology that you think will benefit humanity, you end up seeing a new problem stem from it. That doesn't mean you stop using technology, but just pause for a moment before jumping right in to the new tech.

[@strdstryr]

I dropped Amazon over two years ago for all of these reasons. They’re not trustworthy, not reliable, and not exciting anymore. Just one correction I think: Amazon is Target with stuff that’s just as expensive, with lower quality and more fake crap to sort through, than Target’s. 😆

[@jamesmonahan7872]

I could not agree with you more. I am well entrenched in Apple and years ago Siri was light years behind Alexa. Siri is still not as good today but hoping with Apple Intelligence that will change. I have already started to replace my Echos and once Apple has a display I will get rid of the Shows. we all have to decide what level of exposure we are comfortable with our devices. I do take steps to limit what I share and what I do

[@mikebal7777]

Amazon has sold products touting features, and then taken those very features away a year or so later. I only but Fire tablets as cheap generic tablets, and I always jailbrake them to add the play store. I leave the lock screen adds since that is part of the agreement to get the tablet cheaper, but I refuse to alexify my life.

[@Bigglare]

I didn't count, are there 10 reasons?

[@Nose77904]

I dumped Alexa a couple of years ago. Unplugged all my Echo devices and never looked back.

[@fitdude]

Did you replace them with anything? I'm curious because if I do the same I don't know what I'll do for announcements and music. Maybe I'll pony up the dough for Apple's HomePods...

[@ChaufMT]

Well, I lost faith in Google some time ago.

[@nickentros]

The echo show is pretty useless I just prefer the better speakers and the ability to see the timer. But yeah they’re very frustrating to use. I really only like them for multiroom music on a budget

[@BenNotBen21]

I agree

[@CraigsTechTalk]

Thanks for watching.

[@nigelstockley7011]

commented this before but ive all but replaced my smart home echos with apple HomePods and Sonos speakers. I have 2 echos remaining as unfortunately some critical smart home stuff (Ring alarm specifically) is only compatible with Alexa and I have useful routines that control it. Basically an echo flex - cheap as anything.... tucked away ready to answer the 'Alexa' wake word and do stuff without advertising. Also have an old dot with clock as that makes a nice distance-visible clock in the lounge but thats it now. Look forward to the day hell freezes over and Amazon make their Ring Alarm and Cameras matter compatible. Spot on about Apple not updating the HomePods year on year - there is just nothing to update. Im sure the chips will change with the advent of Apple Intelligence but other things in terms of Audio hardware are great and dont really need updating every 5 minutes. I trust Apple with data. I dont trust any others especially not Amazon and Meta.

[@srhatfield]

Yep, with you 100% there... no faith in Amazon or Google. The jury is still out on Apple, though. I like what I'm hearing from them.

[@mynock250]

I got rid of Alexa echo, was becoming too intrusive.

[@citizen3000]

Craig, Anthropic make either the best or second best AI (specifically LLMs) on the market, depending who you ask. They’re a major player in AI, even if they have dramatically less public awareness (and users) than OpenAI. They’re not some sketchy company nobody has heard of. They’re at the cutting edge of AI development. And their publicly stated position is more safety-oriented than OpenAI. They also have strong data protection promises that they offer to their corporate users. Their AI is called Claude (currently on version 3). Check it out.

[@WatchSparkkTV]

Amazon Alexa was my first, moved to Google before the Nest thing. Google was way better as far as an Assistant goes but the way apps worked weren't good and no Apple Music support. Went back to Alexa, then moved to Apple HomePods. Had the bad issues the first go around with all Apple. So did the dual thing for a long time of running both. Now I am 100% all Apple again and loving it, running Matter devices on Thread. Amazon lost its way and I also noticed once you disconnect your smart home stuff from Amazon, it seems to work faster on Apple. But Amazon has become one big ad and got very annoying. I want to see the news and sports scores, not ads and the ads were way more and it lost its place in my home because of it. Even all the hack ways to get rid of the ads stopped working.

[@russrock1]

Same here

[@jimmchale8750]

We have all this echo hardware that many are unloading. How do we find the right people to hack the hardware (with a modified operating system) for use with home assistant only and tie is a private home AI engine. We want the convenience of AI, but with security & privacy ...which includes data collection and being bombarded with Ads! So anyone know of a way to do this...if so spread the word!

[@thomastevis8655]

I have the echo dot 3rd gen and I absolutely hate it i have to yell at it just to turn a lamp on

[@CraigsTechTalk]

I am sorry to hear that Thomas. That is a bummer. Thanks for watching.

[@Not_now_dave]

As soon as Apple make a HomePod with a screen. Goodbye Echo and Ring 👋🏼

[@MN_Engineer]

Does Apple have an alarm?

[@suzanneholmes7292]

@@MN_EngineerHomePod has Siri, and will set an alarm for you. I left Alexa and went with Apple Home Pod. No annoying ads and no weird noises in the middle of night when I use as a sound machine. Echo was freaking me out. Noises sounded demonic. Also, no annoying suggestions all the time about Amazon products I might be interested in.

[@dikkybee]

You should live in the backwoods of the world like I do in Australia, we don't live we survive, as most of the Alexa features and devices are not available. The security feature was never implemented, cannot buy a fire tablet but best of all my Shows that are beside my bed have the advertisements turned off so all I see is the time and I can operate my smart home devices. I can set them so it shows pictures that I have loaded onto them but I am not interested. I have them set so they dull down at a certain time but no more advertisements. Only thing I would like is a home hub that takes away the need for cloud operation to work my smart home devices, hence why I use a Hubitat hub but voice operation still needs the cloud. I could buy a Alexa hub but not at just over $300 when I can use a $100 tablet. I got a Google nest mini as it connects to my car via Android auto but as of late they are all out of stock otherwise I would have jumped over and ditched the Alexas. Only downfall is they cannot be connected via Sonos so when I tell my missus when I am coming home she has to be sat next to the little mini unlike the Alexa where it goes all through the house.

[@theclown888]

Great video!!

[@valerieread8254]

All of this data gathering is concerning. I haven’t setup a lot of things that would give them anymore data than necessary, such as voice recognition. Last night when I tried to activate Siri on my HomePod mini, 2 feet from me didn’t respond. I tried again, the mini didn’t respond but the OG HomePod across the room and blocked by some furniture responded with “Hi Valerie, how can I help you.” WHAT?!! Again, have never setup voice recognition, but Siri used my name in its response.

[@citizen3000]

lol you really have absolutely no need to be worried about using voice recognition with Apple products