How can Alexa help a senior? For my mother-in-law, it was a lifesaver for reading audiobooks and placing phone calls after her vision was significantly impaired. The skill set has expanded.
The subscription to “Alexa Together” elder care subscription service expands on the existing Alexa Care Hub. Tech Crunch’s recent article entitled “Amazon’s ‘Alexa Together’ elder care subscription service for families now supports up to 10 caregivers” reports that it includes the following:
- An emergency helpline
- Fall detection response features
- A remote assist option that allows family members to manage settings on the older person’s device; and
- An activity feed for family members that notifies them when their loved one is active or if there has been a lag in usual activity.
With a new “Circle of Support” feature of Alexa, seniors can now have up to 10 caregivers on their subscription. The senior and the primary caregiver can now add additional caregivers, or “circle members,” to care for an aging loved one. Circle members can be siblings, cousins, friends, or close neighbors. Circle members can also include the spouse of the primary caregiver, so each spouse receives alerts on their smartphone. Additional caregivers will get access to things like daily alerts and quick check-ins through the activity feed. The new feature is now available to all Alexa Together users.
Alexa Together’s remote assist functionality will soon let primary caregivers remotely set up Alexa Routines, which are designed to group actions seamlessly. Therefore, if a primary caregiver’s loved one starts every morning by turning off their alarm, turning on their bedroom light, asking about the weather, and then the news, the primary caregiver can set up a personalized routine that does all of these actions automatically. That way, seniors don’t have to ask Alexa to do each step separately.
“Primary caregivers will be able to set up the Alexa Routines for their aging loved ones just like they do on their accounts, like turning on all of the household’s smart lights at sunset or setting up a good-night Routine, where Alexa will turn off smart lights and play sleep sounds,” the company outlined in a blog post.
“Amazon will automatically send an email about the newest Routine to the aging loved one, so they are informed whenever a new Routine is set up.”
Amazon also announced last year that it was bringing Alexa to hospitals and senior living centers.
Alexa Together works with supported Alexa devices, like the Echo, Echo Dot or Echo Show, and is available either as an add-on service or in a device bundle. The subscription service costs $19.99 per month or $199 per year.
Reference: Tech Crunch (May 12, 2022) “Amazon’s ‘Alexa Together’ elder care subscription service for families now supports up to 10 caregivers”
