But I suspect the mobility-impaired and the lonely-and-bored are more easily served than those with declining cognitive functions. Once people have reached the stage where they're starting to not recognise people or remember what year it is, [re]discovering a disembodied voice in their living room that sometimes answers questions intelligibly and/or does what they ask of it could be a bit disturbing. The UX problem is much harder than simply ensuring the service doesn't make buggy recommendations, and not an easy one to test.
On the other hand, there are people who exist now who will, in old age, have had helpful (but occasionally stupid) disembodied computer voices around since childhood.
And I don't think the main problem is that elderly people have never been familiar with the idea of a disembodied voice; radio's been around since before everyone was born. I think it's that (i) it's not necessarily smart or human enough to persuade someone with declining mental functions that it has their best interests at heart and (ii) one of the more distressing aspects of talking to someone with declining cognitive function is that their perception of the day and their problems are often filled with conversations they didn't have (or didn't have in the last decade). Putting a machine into the equation which conceivably could have been responsible for "John told me NOT to take my pills" or "someone keeps asking me for money" makes untangling this more difficult for family, as well as something the machine itself can't handle (though I suppose smart devices with logging and "rewind/replay" functions are a lot better than telephones with scam callers in that respect)
Unless there's a device specifically targeting the elderly and their priorities AND you're confident that that business model will survive for your lifetime, I couldn't recommend it. It's fine to have it be one of the ways you do things but don't put most of your eggs in that basket.
Yeah, really, at the end of the day no device has that guarantee.
Part of why we got it for her is because her eyesight is failing I thought it'd be easier for her to make calls by just saying someone's name. However Amazon makes it very hard for people that don't have cell phones— before you can make calls you have to type in a code that they'll send you in an SMS message. Since my grandma doesn't have a cell phone, only a landline, that wasn't doable. I had amazon text the code to my phone. She can call people via Alexa now, but the caller ID on their end shows up as my phone number instead of hers. It confuses the hell out of people she calls (including me, when I see that I'm getting a call from myself!)
I think older people who aren't fluent in the use of search engines also have a harder time making voice queries that the assistants can understand. She'll sometimes throw in extra information that isn't necessary for her question/command which throws off the results. Although it is adorable when she says "Good morning Alexa, would you please tell me what time it is?" instead of just "Alexa, what time is it?"
Simple workaround idea: is it possible to have amazon text a google voice number (or equivalent) set in her name, and redirecting to her landline?
Talked to my dad today, it's been unplugged because my granddad is worried that satellites are taking his picture and showing it to him, and he doesn't dare use any voice commands.
Turns out it was a poor gift. I wonder what kind of creepy shit my kids' kids will try to pawn off on me.