In this case, the fixed location plus the far field mic are great. When she's alone, she spends all of her time in her home. She lives in a pretty small place which means she can basically ask to start a phone call from anywhere and she'll be able to interact with the Echo. It's as much the hardware as it is the platform that makes it all work in this case.

I have no doubts the tech could facilitate something similar on Google and Apple's platforms but, afaik, building comparable functionality isn't currently possible (at least with Siri)—can you add arbitrary commands to either?

EDIT: the quickest interaction I could get away with was, "Alexa, start a phone call with {name}". No back and forth. One statement and the echo simply confirms (which was optional).

She can initiate the call from anywhere, and based on the description given she still needs to go over to and pick up her phone to complete the interaction.

I agree the ability to add arbitrary commands into Echo is a great feature, reminds me of ifttt quite a bit, which is usually a bit clunky yet very powerful.

Yeah, that's one quirk I wish didn't exist. If I could make the Echo work as a speakerphone of sorts, that'd be amazing. That's one of my two asks (ability to get access to the microphone), the other being server-side interaction initiation but I recognize the massive potential for abuse of both so I'm not holding my breath.

Do we even know if grandma has a smartphone?

For an elderly woman with poor eyesight, a fixed location landline that never needs updating or maintenance is probably preferred over an easily lost phone that needs to get plugged in, updated, etc.

As a grandson of two, nope. When one of them fell down, having a cellphone in her pocket allowed her to call for help, which she couldn't have otherwise. She still has a landline, but it has become an expensive decorative object.

> expensive

I pay ~$0.50/day for the peace of mind that I can call the police from any major room in my house, whether or not my cell phone is near me, or even has a charged battery for that matter. Also, that emergency services would immediately know my address when calling from my landline, so I could do as little as just call and hang up to get them there in an emergency. There are many benefits to maintaining a landline, and (cheap) cost is one of them.

>I pay ~$0.50/day for the peace of mind that I can call the police from any major room in my house,

You know you can cancel your phone service and still call 911 in many states (including the most populous ones)?

I did not know that, but I will certainly check into it. Thank you.

You can also do this with Cell phone that works. I don't even think the phone has to have a working SIM card in it to call 911.

We're hungry for better design, and unfortunately technologically complex products are where the progress is being made. Case in point, Nest. So we take the bad with the good.

But yeah, in this case, there are big-button landline phones with speed dial.

True and I totally agree that the simplest solution is generally the best and that not ever "problem" needs a technologically complex solution. Nothing worse than entering a "smart home" and being told not to use the light switches[^1]. :)

In this particular case, we've tried a big button phone. The problems with it are two fold: first, cataracts impact her straight forward vision and she's not able to remember button placement. Second, it's not uncommon for her to forget what she intended to do before getting there. The simple act of walking to the phone to initiate a call is enough time for her to forget who she wanted to call in the first place. At least in this case, she can act on the thought immediately and be reminded when she gets to the ringing phone.

[^1]: full disclosure: I can toggle my lights with my Echo. I use z-wave light switches though so people that aren't nerds like me don't have to personify the appliances in my apartment.

And yet, sisk's grandmother prefers this method. Even removing a small amount of friction can have big changes in how people behave with technology.