# Amazon Alexa 45 Hacker News commenters recommended Amazon Alexa and 131 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 11 of 13 months. **Verdict:** Good at timers, weather, lights and shopping by voice, and cheap with smart home gear. Critics say the newer LLM version is less reliable. ## Why people recommend it - Good at timers and reminders (4 comments): "has gotten amazing at answering questions, setting timers, telling me the weather, etc., but would I ever pay a subscription for it? Absolutely not." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46211570)) "Old competent non paid Alexa was good for timers as well, the rest of the platforms a turd" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49088674)) "it's super convenient to use a voice prompt to start/stop timers while cooking" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50264724)) - Controls lights and home automation (4 comments): "They offer a lot of convenience if you want voice control and home automation and they're fairly affordable" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47002264)) "is way more convenient than checking 14 light switches around my home" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47402487)) "The lights can be activated by voice and that's pretty nice to have." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50078347)) - Trusted voice data privacy (4 comments): "I have eight and have never bought one. Having worked there I actually trust the security more than before I worked there." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47226821)) "Since Amazon took (and as far as I know still takes) voice privacy incredibly seriously" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49675878)) "Voice data in the Amazon cloud is well-defended." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49697511)) - Affordable voice control (2 comments): "They offer a lot of convenience if you want voice control and home automation and they're fairly affordable" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47002264)) "Google home / Alexa on the cheap end" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46871651)) ## What people warn about - Less reliable after LLM upgrade (4 comments): "Amazon still has more work to do with making their tool-use calls bullet proof" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46798270)) "introducing non-deterministic behavior into a device I primarily use to help with timekeeping and control lights is nothing but a regression" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47977423)) "the capabilities and reliability of both Alexa and Google’s voice assistant have regressed once they moved to an LLM based system" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46117718)) - Clunky app and limited design (3 comments): "Amazon's customer-facing software has always been quite terrible across the board IME, even before LLM coding. The Alexa app, for example, is awful" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50002425)) "Amazon and I guess Siri's original design was completely undiscoverable. Both had limited vocabulary and actions you could take." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49700069)) "The problem with Alexa is that by the time it appeared anywhere other than Echo devices, it was already deeply enshittified." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49698201)) - Pushy subscriptions and ads (3 comments): "has gotten amazing at answering questions, setting timers, telling me the weather, etc., but would I ever pay a subscription for it? Absolutely not." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46211570)) "When it tries to upsell Prime subscriptions into even more Amazon subscriptions I always interrupt it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47228871)) "if they'd only practised customer obsession like Amazon used to (still?) preach, and not stuff their products with ads" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47895062)) - Voice may be poor interface (2 comments): "Alexa is in the same boat. Compared to old-fashioned finger-and-screen interfaces, maybe voice simply isn't a great way to interact with computers" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46115216)) "Alexa and other voice assistants, yada yada, were all ventures looking for something as big as, say, the rise of mobile, and they all failed" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47174722)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Apple HomePod](https://hackerapproved.com/p/apple-homepod.md): 30 recommend - [Google Home](https://hackerapproved.com/p/google-home.md): 19 recommend - [Meta Portal](https://hackerapproved.com/p/meta-portal.md): 17 recommend - [Home Assistant Voice Preview Edition](https://hackerapproved.com/p/home-assistant-voice-preview-edition.md): 14 recommend - [Amazon Echo Show](https://hackerapproved.com/p/amazon-echo-show.md): 7 recommend ## Where to get it - [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Amazon+Echo+smart+speaker+with+Alexa&tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link) ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Amazon Alexa", https://hackerapproved.com/p/amazon-alexa/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).