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by ghaff 736 days ago
I don't even really use it for that. I have a kitchen timer on my microwave and another one on the oven. Both are easy to set. I can see if they're running and how much time is left.
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I'd guess that half our Alexa utterances are for setting timers (the other half being split between listening to music and summoning the family to dinner/other announcements). Having dirty hands or not having to walk over to frob buttons makes the voice-activated timers pretty compelling to me.
Both my kitchen timers are sealed panels, one above the stove and one on the oven so I guess I just got in the habit of using them years before I had an Alexa.

I don't really even use the small one in the kitchen except to ask for a weather report now and then. But I see how the timers can be useful. They're very handy for my dentist etc. and would be for timing anything when you really don't have a free hand or want to touch anything.

Bedroom is light and alarm. Sometimes music but I don't really listen to music in bed. Downstairs I play off the AppleTV connected to my stereo system.

Set timer, play music, turn lights on/off, get weather report accounts for 100% of my Alexa usage. My wife uses the summoning function occasionally and my kids used to ask it random questions when they were younger, but yeah, that's about it.