Every alarm, timer, and reminder I set (on my phone), are set by voice.

I chose it because "Set an alarm for 8am" really is the best interface to interact with that subsystem.

I think parent is talking more about:

"Please buy tickets to concert"

"Front row tickets to concert purchased for $500"

"Wait no, buy the cheapest tickets!"

"Cancelling order! Purchased last row tickets for $10"

"Only $10? Well maybe I can spend a little more an not be in the last row"

etc

This is exactly the kind of exasperating dialogue I've had with underwhelming organic assistants too. It is not a problem confined to machines. Ergo, the next step in virtual personal assistants is learning your preferences and being able to apply them. It's not hard to imagine the following exchange:

"Alexa, book me a flight to Sydney for Wednesday"

Alexa knows that I'm in Melbourne, that I always fly economy class on flights under three hours, have a strong preference for Oneworld airlines, fly direct whenever possible, and like to fly in the mornings except between 8am or 10am on weekdays.

"I found three flights on Wednesday that match your preferences. On your kitchen screen now. Which one shall I book?"

The next development after that would be intermodal transport scheduling and calendar awareness: "Alexa, book me travel for the Sydney board meeting". "Here's an itinerary that matches your diary and preferences."

That would be lovely, but there's no way that's the next step. The next step is "I booked a flight with our GreatDeal™ Partner [and you're paying more than if you had used a discount booking site]"

I'm not so cynical, in large part because I think you could develop an Alexa skill right now that does most of what I described.

However, that is besides the point. This was just an illustration of what is possible if your VPA is a preference-aware negotiation agent.

Of course you are free to choose a closed platform, but it doesn't have to be that way.

Agreed, i don't want it to do any of that. With that said, there are plenty of things i'd love to be able to use it for. Texting _(via Telegram.. app support, not just SMS!)_, remind/alarm, and information are my main ones.

Currently, i only use it for alarms. I'd love if Assistants became good enough to conversationally text someone.

Ditto, the Echo is worth it alone for this. "Echo, what time is it" "Echo, set an alarm for [+8 hours]". And when I'm about to sleep and I realize I've forgotten the alarm, I don't have to turn on a glaring blue screen.

I had a similar use for my 5X the other night. I was laid in bed and remembered a task I needed to do the next day but would likely forget by morning (terrible memory). An "OK Google" followed by "Remind me to do x tomorrow" and a reminder was set without me so much as opening my eyes. Battery capacity sucks after a year though (perhaps due to the way I charge it)

I like it when driving.

"Text my wife <message>", "Call my wife", "Play <band> on Spotify", "Open Waze" (after playing music on Spotify, Waze is no longer on the screen so I can switch back to it).

The reservations stuff? No way, I want to choose my seats and price point.

The usual sporadic usage of Google now with voice controls, for me, comes from playing music and setting up alarms/reminders. I like waking up in the morning and going "Ok Google, play some music". If I had a more integrated system (right now I just have a Pixel C tablet that I use to listen to music, not the best) with Google Home and the appropriate stuff then I would probably use it more. I also get especially frustrated when I have to repeat my "Ok Google" trigger like 5-6 times before it catches on but I think that might be due to the poor reception + distance of my tablet which is a bit sloppy.

The only thing I ever use them for is to set an alarm to wake me up the next morning. Even then, the semantics of the built in alarms make it needlessly painful. They stick around in an inactive state after going off and there's a maximum number, and the virtual assistants all just give up when they hit the maximum.

That, and seeing what in says in response to personal questions, insults, jokes, etc.