Amazon is making a huge bid for the lucrative eldercare sector with Alexa Together, its first paid service in the field.
Alexa Together, which was first announced at Amazon's fall hardware event, is launching today, Tuesday, December 7th. Alexa Together is a new subscription service from Amazon that builds on the current Alexa Care Hub to provide a less intrusive method to utilize Amazon's voice assistant and accompanying Echo speakers to both help and maintain tabs on an aging loved one or other person who requires care.
Since Alexa's inception, resourceful families have devised methods to have the artificially intelligent assistant aid them in caring for a loved one who lives far away. Electronically "dropping in" on an older family member to check on them and sharing Alexa accounts so they can see their activities has been an easy — if inelegant — method to ensure that your family member is safe, especially if they aren't always excellent at answering the phone. However, because the technology wasn't developed for that use case, it's a little intrusive for the individual being "monitored."
Amazon has built additional capabilities based on how its customers shoehorned the Alexa assistant into various use cases, first with the Care Hub and now with Alexa Together. As a result, a device has emerged that may make the task of caring for an aging loved one from afar easier and, eventually, more beneficial.
The new service, which replaces the previous, free, Care Hub service, costs $19.99 per month or $199 per year. Customers get a professional monitoring service as well as some extra proactive features for the increased charge. A six-month free trial is offered, and all Care Hub clients will receive a year of Alexa Together for free.
Urgent response and fall detection are the two most significant features coming with Alexa Together. This offers hands-free access to a professional emergency hotline 24 hours a day, seven days a week, by just saying "Alexa, call for assistance" to an Echo speaker and being connected with an agent. The agent can then request police, fire, or ambulance dispatch, and Alexa can also send a notification to the authorized caregiver.
Fall detection necessitates the use of third-party gear, which is presently available from Assistive Technology Services (ATS) and Vayyar. Vayyar Care, a wall-mounted gadget from the manufacturers of Vayyar Home, costs $250. It employs sensors and radio waves to detect falls and is specific to Alexa Together (though Vayyar also manufactures a separate device). The SkyAngelCare by ATS is a fall-detection necklace that connects to Alexa through Wi-Fi.
Both devices may be programmed to ask Alexa whether the user wants to call for Urgent Response, which is a more proactive approach than waiting for the user to ask for assistance. There are no continuing membership costs for using these devices, unlike similar products on the market today, except for the Alexa Together price.
Care Hub: Alexa Together now includes the activity feed and notifications from Care Hub. This notifies a caregiver that the person being observed is up and well by sending an alert to the Alexa app when the person being tracked interacts with Alexa for the first time. It also registers activity with other Alexa-compatible smart home devices, such as smart lighting, thermostats, and motion sensors.
This is a more privacy-conscious approach to monitoring someone without utilizing intrusive devices like cameras or disclosing what they are doing. The caregiver, for example, can observe that there was an encounter but not what it was. Alexa Together may also notify a caregiver if there has been no activity for a specified time, alerting them to the need to check in.
Together, Alexa also has a new Remote Assist feature. This gives a caregiver direct access to a person's Alexa account with their consent, allowing them to assist with setting up features like setting reminders, adding contacts to call or message with their voice, adding things to a shopping list, and integrating music and video services. Finally, a new feature is the ability to add additional carers, which will be available early next year.
Amazon is going all-in on the aging-in-place market. The CDC defines "aging in place" as "the capacity to securely reside in one's own home and community." Regardless of age, wealth, or skill level, you may live freely and happily. The smart home is a natural ally in this regard, and several other Amazon technologies revealed at the same event earlier this year have the potential to assist in other ways.
The Ring Alarm Pro, which combines a home security system and an Eero mesh Wi-Fi system into one device, may make it simpler to set up a smart home in a relative's home with only one device. According to experts, the most crucial item to put in an older loved one's house is a security system with fire, smoke, and water leak monitoring capabilities. Of course, a powerful internet connection is required for today's security systems.
Amazon's "neighborhood network," Sidewalk, has announced two new collaborations with CareBand and Life360, both of which provide devices that allow you to know exactly where your loved ones are. Both Amazon and Sidewalk have stated that they will produce Sidewalk-enabled products.
Grandparents will like the new Amazon Glow gadget, which is an interactive projector that allows loved ones to play games and read stories with their grandkids from afar. In general, voice assistants are useful allies in the fight against loneliness, which has been linked to greater death rates in the elderly.
Finally, Amazon's rolling robot, Astro, was touted as having the ability to transport a blood pressure cuff to a person at regular intervals during the event. While the robot may appear to be a worthless gimmick at this time, the use cases for elder care are the most appealing (if not fully realized).
Amazon is leading the way among the major internet businesses in this area, but it isn't the first to attempt it. In 2017, Best Buy released Assured Living, a full hardware and software solution for keeping tabs on loved ones. It's now vanished, and Best Buy now advertises different "active aging" technologies available in its stores.
Many stand-alone gadgets have sought to make an impression on the age-tech market. The LifePod is an Alexa-based voice-enabled speaker that performs many of the same functions as the Alexa Together. The GrandPad is a simplified tablet meant to make video calling and other technologies more accessible to the elderly. There is also a variety of equipment for managing prescriptions, as well as gadgets that can assist with safe cooking and technologies that keep you connected to the outside world.
Smart home technology, on the other hand, has generally failed to grab this market yet. Possibly owing to the piecemeal approach, possibly due to the expensive expense of these gadgets and questions about their long-term viability, and definitely due to the old customer's privacy concerns. Any gadget that appears to be eavesdropping on someone, whether with or without a camera, is a significant obstacle to overcome.
However, this is a serious issue and a watershed moment for the smart home. By 2060, the number of Americans aged 65 and over will have increased from roughly 50 million to almost 100 million. Seniors will outnumber children by 2034. The majority of individuals would rather stay in their homes as they get older, rather than spend their life savings on assisted living or nursing homes. When you consider that over 53 million unpaid carers devote a significant amount of their lives to caring for aging relatives, the math becomes clear.
Equipping a complete house with artificial intelligence-enabled smart gadgets from Amazon and others can cost less than a year of in-home care or a month at a care facility. The smart home, when combined with considerable improvements in telehealth made during the COVID-19 pandemic, might become a critical aspect of how we care for our elderly loved ones now and, one day, ourselves.
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