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Amazon Alexa is introducing a new feature called Care Hub, which is designed to help people take care of aging family members.
The company said it has heard customers for years using Alexa’s voice assistant to monitor aging parents, who are increasingly looking to stay in their residence rather than move to a nursing home. The change has created a market of more than $ 30 billion for assistive technologies, according to the Consumer Technology Association.
Starting Wednesday, customers with an Alexa voice assistant can link their account to the Alexa account of an aging loved one. If the family member accepts the invitation, their caregiver can send alerts and view their loved one’s activity feed. This feed is more of a high-level summary that includes basic information such as lights used in the home rather than a way to spy on parents.
There is also an emergency contact feature where the loved one can just say “Alexa, call for help”. Alexa will then send an immediate push notification to the caregiver.
“Once this connection is established, the care recipient doesn’t need to do anything and can go about their day normally,” said Toni Reid, vice president of Alexa Experiences and Echo Devices. “What the caregiver gets is some peace of mind.”
Amazon has been looking at the aging space for years, discussing at one point a potential collaboration with AARP, a lobby group that represents the interests of people over 50. the company can do much more to help older people age.
Reid said the company has been working on the product for around 18 months, but it has taken on new significance as many people stay home with Covid-19 and cannot see loved ones in person. The company has been testing the product in beta with Amazon employees and their own families over the past few months, before opening it up to its wider user population.
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