Siri hasn’t gotten the big AI upgrades we’re expecting soon, but it sounds like Alexa’s recent AI upgrade already has at least one user running back to the arms of the “old” (current) Siri.
The struggles with the new Alexa have made Siri look good
Jennifer Pattison Tuohy writes at The Verge:
I’ve been using Alexa to manage my shopping list for years. There are tons of great list apps out there, but the convenience of adding items by voice anywhere in my house, pulling up the list on the Echo Show in the kitchen, and having it on my phone via the Alexa app has worked well for me. Until it didn’t.
Alexa Plus, combined with a redesign of the Alexa app that puts the AI-powered generative assistant front and center, made the whole process so annoying that I reluctantly switched to Apple’s Reminders app and Siri.
I was instantly grabbed by the stellar headline: “The Alexa app is so bad I’m using Siri again.”
The full article details the small changes Alexa has made over time based on Amazon’s two main priorities:
- AI
- Advertising
The first issue mentioned is the Alexa chatbot text box that appears at the bottom of the list. Prompts users to ask Alexa.
But in the list app, you can intuitively add new items to the list. Not so in the Alexa app.
It’s the worst place for it because the instinct is to put what you want to add to your list there. In the Reminders app, that’s where the nice big plus sign is for adding an item. But when I typed “butter” into Alexa Plus, I got the butter wizard.
To actually add something to the list, I have to go to the top of the screen, tap add item, which takes me to a second screen where there’s a page with ads for Whole Foods items, and finally a little text box at the top where I can type whatever I want.
The author describes how it eventually took six separate taps to get to the point where she could add a new item to the list.
In terms of advertising, the main offender was the aforementioned Whole Foods commercials. It makes sense since Amazon owns Whole Foods and Alexa has shopping capabilities. But forcing Whole Foods groceries on basic shopping list users isn’t great.
The entire article is essentially a cautionary tale about new technology making a simple task worse.
We hope this isn’t an issue with Apple’s upcoming Siri revision.
Do you have a lot of experience with Alexa+ and the updated Alexa app? How have you been doing so far? Let us know in the comments.
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