Alexa for the aged relative
Click/tap this button for a short slide presentation that will be a useful starting point to give you a quick idea of what’s possible. Watch this first and, when you’ve watched it, click the browser back arrow to return to this page and then read on for more detail of how to make Alexa Echo and Alexa Show work for you and your elderly relative or friend.
Basic set-up considerations
The key thing to remember about Echo devices is that the device itself has very little intelligence: virtually all its settings, skills and properties are controlled by the Alexa app on your phone, which talks to the massive cloud-based AI system that is triggered when the user of the Echo device says ‘Alexa, …’ Your phone can be anywhere in the world, as remote as you like from the actual Echo device.
Each Echo device needs to be registered to the Amazon account that owns it and connected to the WiFi network where it is to be used. These two operations may be done together (as with a new Echo device just out of its box and already at its working location) or separately: any Echo device can have its WiFi network changed or be deregistered from one Amazon account and added to another.
That means there is only one setting that definitely needs to be established at the location where the Echo device is to be used: that is connecting the Echo device to the local WiFi network. That’s it! Everything else can be done remotely and earlier or later. And you make this WiFi connection with your Amazon Alexa app at the desired location for the Echo device. The Amazon Alexa app can be downloaded from the AppStore.
The Echo user must have a valid Amazon account in order operate the Amazon Alexa app and to ‘own’ an Echo device. Such an account can be set up without associating it with a credit card (although the standard setup pushes you in that direction, it can be resisted). This might be important if the ‘user’ cannot be trusted to behave responsibly (eg if they might inappropriately make purchases with their Amazon account, although, within the Amazon Alexa app, you can optionally prevent purchases being made by voice [ie an ‘Alexa …’ voice command]). Unless that is disabled, commands like ‘Alexa, order batteries,’ will result in some batteries being placed in your Amazon basket (based upon your previous order of batteries, for example) and your being invited to ‘Buy now.’
This Amazon account can be set up without being near the Echo devices(s) it is intended to be associated with, and even before such devices are purchased.
The Amazon Alexa app must be associated with an Amazon account. It is possible to switch the Amazon account that is currently associated with your Amazon Alexa app: in the Amazon Alexa app you can sign out of one Amazon account and into another. You must ensure that, in the Amazon Alexa app, you are associated with the appropriate Amazon account in order to see and control its associated Echo devices. To change the Amazon account currently associated with your Amazon Alexa app, tap the hamburger menu icon and then tap on Settings, then scroll all the way down to the bottom, where you will see an option like Not <name>? Then Sign Out. After signing out, you will be asked to sign into a valid Amazon account when you next open the Amazon Alexa app. You will need the appropriate registered email address and the associated Amazon password.