Written by
Stephanie Condon, Staff Writer
Stephanie Condon
Staff Writer
Stephanie Condon is a staff writer for CBS Interactive based in Portland, Oregon, covering business technology for ZDNet. She previously covered politics for CBSNews.
Full Bio
Posted in Between the Lines
on December 7, 2021
| Topic: Artificial Intelligence
Amazon on Tuesday officially launched
Alexa Together
, a new subscription service designed to help elderly people live independently while staying connected to caregivers and loved ones. The service, first announced earlier this year, costs $19.99 a month or $199 per year. Customers can also sign up for a free six-month trial, while Care Hub customers will receive a free year of Alexa Together starting Tuesday.
The new subscription service continues Amazon’s push to tailor its vision of “ambient computing” for different communities — including elderly people who want to continue living independently.
Earlier this year, Amazon decided to expand Alexa Smart Properties — which creates vertical solutions for deploying and managing Alexa at scale — to senior living communities. The tech giant was already working with service providers to bring Alexa to seniors, but the COVID-19 pandemic has driven higher demand for video-based communications and voice-activated functionality in senior living communities, Amazon said.
Alexa Together offers an ageing customer 24/7 hands-free access to an Urgent Response professional emergency helpline. During an emergency, they can say, “Alexa, call for help,” to connect with a trained agent who can request the dispatch of police, the fire department or an ambulance. When Urgent Response is called, Alexa will proactively notify a designated caregiver.
The service also connects with third-party fall detection devices from Assistive Technology Service (ATS) and Vayyar. When a customer has fallen, it will prompt Alexa to ask if the customer wants to call Urgent Response and notify the caregiver.
It also includes a “high-level activity feed” for caregivers and family members to monitor. It will notify caregivers every day when the ageing customer has their first interaction with Alexa or a connected smart home device. By the same token, it will notify them if there is no activity by a certain time.
Amazon claims this feature was designed with the privacy of the ageing customer in mind — it’s only a “high-level” activity feed, so it doesn’t go into detail about the customer’s activities. For instance, a caregiver would be able to see if the client asked Alexa for entertainment, but not the song, podcast or Audible book they were listening to.
There’s also a Remote Assist feature that the ageing customer can choose to enable to let caregivers set up and manage Alexa features remotely.
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Amazon
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Digital Transformation
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CXO
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Internet of Things
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Innovation
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Enterprise Software