Howdy. I’m trying to cobble together a device that meets our needs.
We have an Echo Show 15 in the dining room that I can use “Alexa Drop-In” to suddenly be on the screen, talking to mom–all without her having to do anything except say hello.
I’d like to bring that to her room, too–and we are in need of a new TV–I’m wondering if I can combine the expense of both into one solution.
I know Amazon Fire TV Omni (the expensive one) apparently allows Drop-In–but it’s nearly twice the price of the kind of TV we really need. And I don’t use Amazon Fire.
The Fire TV 2 (43 inch) has Alexa, and I assume with the USB ports, there is some ability to add a camera–can I use the Drop-In Feature there…? Even without the TV having a camera, if it could display MY face and hear me talking, that would be good enough.
I really would love to avoid buying an Amazon branded device–if I can just buy an Alexa enabled Smart TV that could allow me to Drop-In, then that’s great!
If this is too complicated of a technological ask for a TV, can it be done with *any tablet? I’d love mom a bigger tablet to play games on, which could be another combination solution.
I tried to buy an Amazon Brand tablet and I was sickened with the disgusting little thing–it came locked with bloatware/Amazon Apps that you cannot remove, and the lock-screen is all active ads that cannot be disabled unless you pay an extra fee. It was the opposite of dementia friendly.
And after all that–even as an Amazon Branded device–I could never get Drop-In to work on it at all, anyway.
I reckon at this point I’d also be open to other suggestions–I really don’t want to pay for another Echo Show…erm…I’m saying that as I open a tab and see there’s an Echo 5 for like $40…I could nix the “drop-in on a tv” thing and just have a smaller Echo Show, if it worked…
Help?