Products · Product
Alexa
Raised as a usability problem by 291 people on Hacker News over 13 years (2014–2026), in 187 threads.
- 1Often fails to understand what users sayUnreviewed
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- 5
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- 7Shows ads at home on the deviceUnreviewed
- 1Often fails to understand what users sayUnreviewed
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- 4
- 5
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- 11Shows ads at home on the deviceUnreviewed
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- 16Skills are hard to discoverUnreviewed
- 17
Every issue, all time, most people first
Often fails to understand what users sayUnreviewed
20142026- Voice commands misinterpreted as shopping requests; skills fail to recognize activation phrases2026-09-14
- Voice search gets disabled when ads and recommendations are turned off2025-09-03
- Voice assistant misinterprets commands, forcing users to repeat them several times2024-09-25
Voice commands are slower than phone and often misfireUnreviewed
20142026- Voice responses are slow, so interactions feel laggy and worse than before2026-10-27
- Takes way too long to respond to simple voice commands2026-03-03
- Voice control is inconvenient, unreliable and slow to use2025-12-01
Voice purchases don't show what is being bought before orderingUnreviewed
20142026- Voice ordering requires too much back and forth, so people browse manually instead2026-03-07
- Voice purchases don't show the user what they are buying before ordering2025-11-26
- Voice order for a common product gives unknown quantity, price, and listing2024-07-24
Unsolicited suggestions interrupt users with 'by the way' messagesUnreviewed
20142026- Unwanted follow-up suggestions after every command are infuriating and unwanted2024-04-18
- Constant new suggestions and notifications pushed on users with no way to turn them off2023-11-17
- Unsolicited "by the way" suggestions interrupt users and are extremely annoying2023-03-23
Chatbot only offers troubleshooting, with no way to reach a humanUnreviewed
20142026- Chatbot only offers troubleshooting and loops back, with no way to reach a human to return an item2026-03-20
- Chatbot loops repeatedly without answering the payment status question or reaching an agent2025-06-27
- Chatbot responds slowly, typing out replies at an artificial pace2023-07-07
Couldn't reconnect the Echo to network after factory resetUnreviewed
20142026- Readjusting all devices and troubleshooting problems through Echo is too cumbersome2026-10-13
- Couldn't get the Echo to reconnect to the network after a factory reset2024-01-21
- Setup app forces repeated switching between house wifi and Echo network to troubleshoot2019-04-16
Must repeat the wake word several times before it respondsUnreviewed
20142026- Wake word falsely triggers often, lowering movie audio and forcing repeated pausing and rewinding2020-10-13
- Often fails to wake up, so user must walk close and enunciate2019-01-07
- Wakes up by accident from TV ads and podcasts, and often fails simple requests2017-12-27
Light-switching commands fail about 20% of the time, unexplainedUnreviewed
20142026- Voice control often fails for nontrivial requests, forcing users to fall back to their phone2025-05-08
- Voice light control is inconsistent, so the user switched to a Bluetooth switch2023-04-27
- Voice assistant often misinterprets commands, playing random songs instead of turning off lights2022-11-15
Music requests fail unless exact station name spoken, then fall backUnreviewed
20142026- Most requests for new or different music, like slow jazz or similar songs, fail to work2024-07-25
- Music requests fail unless the exact station name is spoken, then it falls back to another service2017-01-04
- Can't find songs by custom or uncommon names; plays random music instead2016-12-26
Voice alarms and timers fail or need repeated attempts to setUnreviewed
20142026- Multiple timers crowd together and checking status requires awkward voice commands2022-05-30
- Device must be unmuted to set a timer, and then activates falsely from normal conversation2021-12-23
- Voice alarms and timers fail or need repeated attempts to set the right time2017-12-27
Shows ads at home on the deviceUnreviewed
20142026- Unwanted channels auto-added to rotation; ads cannot be turned off2024-11-20
- Sponsored ads appear on home screen and cannot be turned off2024-08-23
- Device is infuriating to use, with ads shown at home2024-06-24
Repeats misunderstandings and needs re-activation for each commandUnreviewed
20142026- Must get the exact wording right or the assistant fails to understand2022-11-20
- Assistant repeats the same misunderstanding and needs re-activation for each command2017-02-08
- Assistant doesn't carry over seamlessly between home, car and work2016-05-15
Foreign-language song titles unrecognised unless pronounced with local accentUnreviewed
20142026- Can't reliably play albums or artists with unpronounceable titles, so users avoid it2022-05-30
- Foreign-language song titles are not recognised unless pronounced with a local accent2021-02-22
- Must mangle Spanish song titles into fake English pronunciations to match2020-10-26
Only plays a 30-second sample of songs outside Prime libraryUnreviewed
20142026- Voice command for a playlist fails unless it is first added to the library2023-03-06
- Voice recognition struggles when multiple people speak or music is already playing2016-04-05
- Voice requests only play a 30-second sample of songs not in the Prime library2015-06-23
Skills are hard to discoverUnreviewed
20142026- Adding a skill is a highly convoluted process, and the app is terrible2024-07-25
- Skills are exceptionally hard to discover, and the app is slow and clunky2019-06-06
- App loads slowly or not at all, and menus and finding new skills are hard to use2019-03-12
Must prefix every command with the skill name, hard to rememberUnreviewed
20142026- Requires rigid, memorized command phrasing instead of natural language2017-12-30
- Must prefix every command with skill name, stilted and hard to remember2017-02-03
- Must recall exact command syntax; can't find good skills among junk2016-11-04
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 50 complaints
- A popup on mobile blocks the user from getting past it to use the service2026-10-28
- Voice responses are slow, so interactions feel laggy and worse than before2026-10-27
- Readjusting all devices and troubleshooting problems through Echo is too cumbersome2026-10-13
- Constantly shows advertisements to the user2026-10-13
- Users get routed to an AI chat page and must hunt for the link back to search results2026-09-21
- Alexa chat keeps popping up on scroll and its X button does nothing2026-09-21
- Voice commands misinterpreted as shopping requests; skills fail to recognize activation phrases2026-09-14
- Alexa is annoying to use, with advertisements getting in the way2026-09-14
- Voice assistants require brand name in every command, making simple tasks cumbersome2026-08-13
- Thinking status shows constantly, making it seem stuck or like a network problem2026-07-24
- Textbox appears usable without login but redirects to sign-up page2026-07-24
- Users can't tell upfront that sign-up is required2026-07-24
- Alexa has degraded over time into an advertising hub with weird LLM-like behavior2026-05-11
- Laggy and misunderstands timer requests, taking 10 seconds and setting wrong duration2026-05-01
- Chatbot only offers troubleshooting and loops back, with no way to reach a human to return an item2026-03-20
- Voice ordering requires too much back and forth, so people browse manually instead2026-03-07
- Takes way too long to respond to simple voice commands2026-03-03
- Companion app is clumsy, menu-driven, and Skills are awkward to use2026-02-23
- User cannot figure out how to scroll up or down2026-02-21
- Must manually tap the last host to reconnect after iOS suspends the app2026-02-18
- Rufus pops open unprompted and floods the user with text2026-01-16
- Simple commands sometimes trigger a conversation instead of just toggling the lights2026-01-07
- Device list often shows empty or devices show errors until repeated retries work2025-12-20
- News feeds keep re-enabling after the user turns them off2025-12-10
- Voice control is inconvenient, unreliable and slow to use2025-12-01
- Voice purchases don't show the user what they are buying before ordering2025-11-26
- Icon appears usable, but questions can't be sent without admin access grant2025-11-15
- Can't order from it without opening the app; answers to questions are poor2025-10-28
- Developer experience for building Alexa apps is so poor the commenter gave up2025-10-12
- Devices misunderstand queries and fail to hear commands more often over time2025-10-12
- User interface and human interface design is bafflingly bad2025-10-12
- Voice search gets disabled when ads and recommendations are turned off2025-09-03
- Chatbot loops repeatedly without answering the payment status question or reaching an agent2025-06-27
- Adding items to lists from integrated apps has become harder to do2025-05-14
- Voice control often fails for nontrivial requests, forcing users to fall back to their phone2025-05-08
- Alexa reorders wrong products; user must sift through many bad Amazon listings2025-03-31
- UI looks cluttered and lacks dark mode, making it unpleasant to use2025-03-31
- Routines are forgotten and room-named commands fail with 'cannot find bedroom'2025-03-21
- Alexa settings and management app is incredibly confusing and has not improved2025-03-21
- Privacy options are made annoying, obfuscated, or unknown to users2025-03-18
- Voice control for music is hard because song and artist names are confusing, needing multiple commands2025-03-17
- Must phrase requests in a magic word order or it misunderstands2025-03-14
- Saying 'stop alarm' often stops the wrong thing or triggers other devices unpredictably2025-02-27
- Returns wrong product for a simple query and blocks copying results2025-02-26
- Cancelling unwanted orders forces dark-pattern web flows or calling support2025-02-26
- Lights must be asked for by voice each morning, and bulbs drop off the network2025-02-08
- Wife rarely triggers devices; voice recognition worse for women2025-01-09
- Setting timers takes 10-15 seconds and it often misunderstands requests2024-12-20
- Unwanted channels auto-added to rotation; ads cannot be turned off2024-11-20
- Searching now requires waiting for AI summary and extra taps2024-10-30