Why Amazon’s Echo Should Let You Change Wake Words

Jarvis

I was one of the first few people to receive my shiny new Amazon Echo in the mail, and to my surprise, Amazon only gives you three names that you can call it; “Alexa”, “Amazon”, and “Echo”.

Alexa and Echo are okay, but why would anybody want to call it “Amazon”?
I don’t want to call it “Alexa”; my neighbors probably think I have an abusive relationship with a girl named Alexa since I’m always yelling down my hallway to turn off a timer or to play music.

EchoWakeWords

Doesn’t it make sense to be able to call it whatever you want? Maybe “Jarvis” from Iron Man, or “Cortana” from Halo?

The Echo is branding itself as this all-useful, ever-updating home automation system; you can create and launch custom programs with IFTTT, roll up your blinds, turn off lights; and yet, you have to say “Alexa” to every single command with no hopes of changing the name you call it.

Sure, I understand the desire for branding, but if someone is over your house and hears you saying “Jarvis, turn off the lights”, do you think they wouldn’t ask “What is that cool device”? I’ve had dozens of people ask about the Echo, and most of them pointed out that you should be able to change the wake word.

Well. They’re not wrong.

The Echo is constantly updating in the background and coming out with new features. Hopefully, one of those updates is the ability to change the wake word. I know I’m not the only one who would love that feature and experience a greater enjoyment of the product.

What People Are Saying:

No comments yet. Be the first!

Leave a Reply

Copyright 2024, All rights reserved. Yadda yadda.