Alexa Together goes online New premium online care system in the US
Amazon's new Alexa Together service, which the retail giant announced at its big launch event in September, is now available in the US.
Alexa Together provides a way to care for elderly parents and people with special needs through an Amazon Echo series speaker or display.
It's a follow-up to the Alexa Care Hub, which went live last year. But unlike the free Care Hub, Alexa Together is a paid subscription service.
It costs $19.99 per month or $199 per year, and comes with a 6-month free trial (or one year free if you've used Alexa Care before).
What justifies the cost? A 24/7 urgent response line is part of Amazon Alexa Together. This allows the person using the service to speak to a qualified call handler in the event of an emergency, rather than relying solely on a list of emergency contacts who might miss the alert.
Alexa Together supports third-party fall response sensors from companies like Vayyar and SkyAngelCare. So this urgent response line doesn't just rely on the person asking Alexa for help. They can also use the “Alexa, call for help” voice command.
Other Alexa Together features happen on the caregiver side and are similar to what we saw in Care Hub in 2020.
You can add reminders and alerts to your loved one's Echo, manage shopping lists, and see an activity feed of their interactions with their Echo.
Alexa Together can also send you a notification if Alexa hasn't been used by a certain time each day. Multiple people can also access these notifications and commands.
A subscription appears to be based on the person cared for rather than the caregiver. However, Amazon says this multi-person join feature will be coming next year.
In the Alexa Together app, you'll see four main ways to connect with the other person: Drop In, Call, Message, and Remote Assist.
Drop In treats an Echo like a walkie-talkie, and Remote Assist is likely where you interact directly with their instance of Alexa.
To get started, you'll need to install at least one Echo- or Alexa-equipped speaker in the person's home. Amazon recommends using more than one.
Of course it is, but the system will clearly work better if interaction with Alexa becomes less onerous.
If you live in the United States, you can sign up for Alexa Together now.
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