We have an Echo and to this day we haven't found any use for it.
Talking is broadcast and most of the time we search stuff for ourself on mobile. Also, it often simply says it has no answer.
Here is our fun little project for Halloween https://youtu.be/BdbjoniAP0s
I briefly played with the webhook in ifttt and I think the "serverless" aws or Google Cloud could use this as a custom dash button. Instead of going to a dash button and pressing it if you run out of tide, you simply say "echo, trigger detergent" or I'm thinking with custom programming, "echo, trigger [predefined post request here that starts a series of actions]"
The problem I'm finding is I can train myself to remember about 5 skill names that can each do one or two things, but thats about it. I'm wondering when I write my own, if i should just have a central skill for my house. Also how did you link into the Chromecast? I have a chromecast buried in my Vizio Smartcast TV and i'm wondering how i can link it in.
News.
Kitchen timers.
Music control.
These are my most popular uses.
Light seems to slow instead of just hitting a button
If the switch is within reach anyway then I totally agree that a voice command is more cumbersome than just hitting the switch
My mother in law does not use a computer or smartphone at all, but she loves to use the Echo because it provides a familiar interface (speech) to services she would use (music, weather, casual information search).
And interacting with voice assistants is a two way street in my opinion. They will get better at understanding what we want and we will adapt to phrase our questions in a way the software understands.
And while I doubt us folks would use a voice assistant to query a solution for an error message on stackoverflow it still provides a convenient way to control music, lights, shutters while our hands are occupied in other ways (cooking, drawing, crafting, ...)