Why not just get another el cheapo PAYG phone and tape it to the kitchen counter (or wherever) and program the ring tone to something distinctive. When he hears The Stars and Stripes (or whatever) ringing, it will mean he needs to go and fetch his proper phone.
Otherwise, could you ask him to ring you at a specified time, rather than trying to ring him? If he misses his regular call time, you’ll know to go and check on him.
During setup, you configure each Echo device with a name.
Detailed info here. How Does Drop In Work? - Amazon Customer Service
I thought about something like that, or a cheap land-line phone. I do like the idea of a camera, though.
Ringing at a certain time in problematic in that 1) I’m not always available at the same time and 2) he’d never remember. His short-term memory is spotty at best; part of the reason it’s important I can get in touch with him is to remind him in the morning about any doc visits he needs to go to during the day. He’ll remember if I tell him in the morning; if I tell him the day before he often forgets details (exact time, which doc, etc) or forgets the appointment altogether.
So, this morning I managed to snag an Echo Show at a really great price; they’re bringing out a new version this month, and put the old one on sale for about half off. SCORE! I’m hoping that it’ll not only work for the drop-in thing (“DAD GO FIND YOUR DAMN PHONE”) but also for calendar stuff. It looks like if I set up a Google Calendar or something, it’ll display it. I’d love to have it auto-display it all the time - does anyone know if it can be set up to do that?
Otherwise, I might be able to teach him to say “Alexa, show me the calendar.” I think he could do that if I write it down and tape it to the thing. From there, I can see him learning to use it for simple stuff: “Alexa, what time do the Packers play today?” etc.
Another question for those who might have one - is there a setting where it could type out a response in addition to saying it? I have Echos, but none with screens. He’s a little hard of hearing so having it say it and display it would be awesome.
The Amazon commercial for this product implies that the grandmother just unpacks the device, places it on the end table and it’s connected to her WiFi and is able to place calls. Are you telling me that the commercial lied to me, and it’s not that simple?
If your dad is up and about around the same time every day, you can set a daily reminder asking him if he knows where his phone is. Also, most Alexa requests are kept in a log tied to the main phone. You can call up all the requests from your end. His daily calendar for him? I haven’t worked with. You may want to tie in a decent soundbar to the Dot so it is loud enough for him. That is the Dot advantage over the other Echo devices. I read though they are coming out with one that requires external speakers.
Have you ever looked in to programming for Alexa? It’s just like making an iOS or Android app. Actually maybe even easier. I looked at it for two minutes once and thought “that looks like something I could figure out.” It’s well documented that you’re a better programmer than me so…in a weekend you could probably do what you want for Dad’s Show if you can’t find it in the store already.
So as a follow-up: Shortly after my last post on this thread, Amazon had one of their “gold box” deals where they were selling the Amazon Show at a huge discount. They’ve come out with a new model, so I got the old model at more than half off. SCORE!
I set it up for my Dad and brought it over there this week. The drop-in feature is set up, but so far the only time I had to use it he wasn’t home (he’d forgotten to charge it). That said, I did go ahead and set him up with a Google Calendar, and the Show displays his events every day. Given that he goes to physical therapy once a week and almost always has a doc appointment or two to remember, I thought it was worth a try. And you know? It’s working! I had low hopes that he would remember to look at it, but he does, all the time. I think the constant reminder makes the appointments really stick in his head.
He told me last night that when his phone was dead, he tried to call me with the Show. I was REALLY surprised at that; I hadn’t told him how to do it, only mentioned it could be done, so he didn’t know how it worked. But the fact that he even thought to do it is really encouraging to me; his mind is OK but his short-term memory is crap, and he is a creature of habit. But apparently not so much as I’d feared.
The only thing that I don’t like about it is that you have to sync it with a smart phone - not a tablet, not a computer - to get contacts on it. He doesn’t have a smart phone and it would be a waste of money to get him one, and I’m loath to put my 200+ contacts on it from my phone when he really only needs a very few numbers. Somehow I got my contact info on there; I think it may have been because I called it. I’m hoping that’s the case because otherwise I’m at a loss to see how I can get contact info into it. I’ve spent over an hour on a support call with Amazon, and it comes down to “no smart phone, no contacts.” Dumb. Worst case I guess I put all my contacts in.
Other than that, so far, so good. Thanks all for the suggestions!
Yep, I’m sure I could, and I might! But so far it’s doing what I need it to do out-of-the-box.
Can you back up your contacts, delete your contacts, make a new contacts list on your phone of just your family, sync with the Show, turn off syncing on the Show and then restore your original contacts list?
A google mini (and probably several other devices) are perfectly suitable for this use-case. Do it all the time with my kids. “Hey google, broadcast pick up the phone!” (my youngest doesn’t have a cellphone so this works great in combination with our land-line).
(Oh wait, you said “iPhone”… that probably doesn’t have google assistant on it. Dunno.)
I could, but my complete disgust at Amazon for the stupidity of the entire feature prevents me from doing such a thing. They even sold me a cheap Amazon Fire tablet, telling me (erroneously, as it turned out) that I could use that to sync contacts. There’s got to be a way to get a contact in there, since my name mysteriously appeared. I’m thinking that it happened because I initiated the call. I’ll try it out as soon as I can track down a family member willing to be a guinea pig.
Update 2: I did finally figure out a way to add contacts; if you initiate a call from the Alexa app, it will allow you to add a new contact. You’d think with over an hour spent on Amazon support chats that one of the reps I talked to would have realized that, but no!
Athena, regarding the contacts, once again I think the answer is a cheap PAYG phone, which you set up with just a few contact numbers, including yours. Then you sync THAT phone to the device. And then tape the phone to the kitchen counter. I think that having two methods for contacting your dad is probably a good insurance plan.