Astro can do so much with simple voice commands /Amazon. Amazon Astro is many devices in one. The rolling home robot's cameras bring th...
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| Astro can do so much with simple voice commands /Amazon. |
As it gets more and more polished, Astro, like other Amazon Day 1 Edition before it, will likely start to roll out to a larger audience -- at which point its price will jump to $1,500. With that price tag, the question for most people is, what does Astro do that's worth that price tag? We put together a list of everything Astro can do so far -- so you can decide whether it's really worth the money for you.
The three-wheeled bot’s sensors allow it to navigate the house—or one floor of it anyway. Its microphones are always listening for “Astro” so you can command it to do various things, including delivering stuff to different rooms. Its cameras, including two on its baseball-bat-length periscope, let you keep an eye on your home while you’re away. Its 10-inch screen is for Astro’s big, expressive eyes, plus some basic tablet things. My adventures with Astro, in its earliest days, showed me a world where computers can be relatable, proactive helpers to humans.
The delivery feature is certainly fun, but I wouldn’t call it helpful. Astro lacks arms, so someone needs to grab the cargo. In the time it takes me to call Astro to the kitchen and ask it to deliver something, I could have done it myself. Astro uses artificial intelligence to go to spaces where it thinks it will be useful. Astro decided around Day 2 that the kitchen would be the place. My family sent it back to the charging station over 70 times in two weeks.
You can turn off this Hangout feature. (I didn’t because I enjoy torturing my family.) An Amazon spokeswoman told me that the robot should get smarter over time, and that the company is looking to improve the feature. When you put Astro in Away mode, it remains in its charging station but stays on the lookout for unusual activity. To test this, I donned a face mask and “broke in.” Astro was quick to spot me and send an alert to my phone.
My kids are obsessed with Astro. The baby already knows Astro by name because it plays his favorite music. The 4-year-old wants to do everything with it—watch shows and movies on Amazon Prime, play Freeze Dance and learn about different animals.
I've used the Live View from the cameras to check in on the 4-year-old while I’m putting the baby down for a nap upstairs. I wouldn’t actually ever let Astro “babysit,” but Amazon does see remote care as a real use. After Astro detects its wake word, what you say might be recorded and sent to the cloud. (A blue light on its periscope indicates it’s listening.) These recordings are saved, but you can use the Alexa app to delete them.
For facial recognition, Astro takes images and creates a numeric representation. This data is stored on the device, not the cloud. You can delete it by disabling the feature. We’ve been told our entire lives that home robots will one day help us, and Astro’s technical abilities wowed me. But here in my home, I still don’t have a clue what it’s for.
Home security
Astro's biggest selling point for many people will be its home security features. Not only can it listen for breaking glass or alarms, using Alexa Guard, but it can also pair with a Ring Protect Pro subscription to patrol your home while you're away, sending notifications if it senses anything out of the ordinary.
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| Amazon Astro Roundup: Here's Every Command for the Newest Home Robot /Amazon. |
Commands:
- "Astro, patrol the house."
- "Astro, I'm leaving."
- "Astro, disarm."
- "Astro, set monitoring to Home."
Simply say, "Astro, go to the charger" to make it return to the charging port. While Astro doesn't include a vacuum, it can still get a lot done while it zooms around your house. That includes finding people (using Face ID), following people, delivering snacks or drinks, and charging your phone with a USB-C port.
Commands:
- "Astro, go to [name] in the [room name]."
- "Astro, find [name]."
- "Astro, follow me."
- "Astro, remind [name] to take out the trash."
- "Astro, take this to the [room name]."
- "Astro, create a to-do."
- "Astro, go to the charger."
Play
If you've got kids, Astro can be a pretty compelling (and admittedly expensive) toy. Although Alexa is on board, Astro very much has a personality of its own. You can ask Astro to dance, beatbox, rap, burp, imitate various animals, speak, sing and plenty more -- and each request will be met with some cute movement, expression and sound. My kids have already asked Astro to do the robot at least 30 times in the past two days. If you have a dog, Astro can pair with a Furbo pet camera to buzz around, launching treats along the way.
In addition to the more novel stuff, Astro can also play music and stream TV shows on its screen, just like an Echo Show smart display. It can even follow you around while it plays it.
Commands:
- "Astro, play [song]."
- "Astro, beatbox."
- "Astro, sing."
- "Astro, act like a bumblebee."
- "Astro, act like a bird."
- "Astro, act like a dog."
- "Astro, act like a monkey."
- "Astro, let's dance."
- "Astro, take a selfie."
- "Astro, play [podcast]."
- "Astro, do the robot."
- "Astro, rap."
- "Astro, burp."
- "Astro, [pause, play, resume, stop, fast-forward, rewind]."
In patrolling mode, the periscope camera can go pretty high. To close the periscope feature, say "Astro, down periscope." Again, like an Amazon Echo, Astro can help facilitate communication, letting you video chat with far-away friends or family. And unlike countertop-bound smart displays, Astro can even follow you around while you chat.
Communication Commands:
- "Astro, call [name]."
- "Astro, hang up" or "Astro, end the call."
- "Astro, drop in on the living room."
- "Astro, drop in on [name]."
- "Astro, call for help."
- "Astro, send a message to [name]."
- "Astro, video call [name]."
- "Astro, answer the call."
- "Astro, play messages."
Everything Alexa can do…We've written a different article to go in-depth with everything Alexa can do. Astro has Alexa built in, so that means everything there, Astro can do, too. You can buy supplies with Amazon Prime, video chat, play music and a lot more. Behold, the complete list of commands you can give to Amazon's Alexa and our roundup of the best Alexa skills.
We're still learning. And so is Astro. Our relationship with Astro is new and exciting. In a way, it's like we just started dating and we're trying to get to know each other -- which takes some time. With that said, we still don't definitively know every command or skill Astro is capable of right now, but we're working on it.
As we've mentioned, Astro is still a "Day 1 Edition," meaning it will inevitably develop and improve. As we continue testing and our relationship with Astro grows, we will continue to update this story with more information. For more information on our new, adorable robot friend, read about Astro's data protection features and our full Amazon Astro review. Plus, check out our 22-minute Amazon Astro review video.