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Last week Amazon launched a new Alexa feature called Care Hub that helps people support their loved ones. With Care Hub, people can more easily check in on aging relatives to make sure they’re doing okay and active. And loved ones have an easier way to reach out to caregivers, even if those loved ones struggle with using technology.
With COVID keeping families apart and making travel challenging, many people are having difficulty checking in on aging loved ones. Care Hub can help connect families and make it easier to keep tabs on older relatives, whether those relatives live nearby or thousands of miles away.
About Care Hub
Amazon’s Care Hub is a new free feature that uses Alexa devices to connect families. With Care Hub, a caregiver can be notified when the loved one has used Alexa. The caregiver can also use Drop In to check on their loved one and be designated as an Emergency Contact.
Both the older relative and the caregiver must agree to use Care Hub and give permission to enable it.
Alexa Activity Notifications
With Care Hub enabled, a caregiver can get notifications when a loved one has used Alexa recently. The caregiver can also receive an alert when their loved one hasn’t used Alexa for a certain period of time or before a certain time in the morning. For example, if your mother always says, “Alexa, good morning!” to start her day, you could set a Care Hub alert to notify you if your mom hasn’t used Alexa by 10:30 am.
A caregiver can also see a general view of how their relative has been using Alexa, such as playing a song or asking about the weather. They can also see which Alexa device was used to make the request.
But Care Hub won’t share information about specific Alexa requests. Amazon explains, “You won’t see the song they played or what they said.”
Drop In
Using Care Hub, a caregiver can use Drop In to check in on their loved one. With Drop In, a call can be made without the recipient having to answer it. The connection is made automatically, so caregivers can check in on loved ones who might be challenged by technology.
See Amazon Drop In Help Page for more information.
Calling for Help
Care Hub can make calling for help easier for your loved one. You can be designated as the Emergency Contact. Or you as the caregiver will become the Emergency Contact by default if your loved one hasn’t designated an Emergency Contact in Care Hub.
With Care Hub, Alexa will notify the Emergency Contact if it hears certain phrases. These phrases include: “Alexa, call for help,” “Call for emergency help,” “Call my emergency contact,” “Call my contact for help,” and “Call my help contact.” After Alexa hears one of those phrases, it will place a call, send a push notification, and send a text to the designated Emergency Contact.
How to Set Up Care Hub
You can set up Care Hub in the Alexa app on your phone. Note that your loved one must have an Alexa device connected to Wi-Fi in their home to use Care Hub. The caregiver does not need an Alexa device, only the Alexa app on their phone. Some features of Care Hub work better if the caregiver also has an Alexa device.
See Amazon Help Page => Help Loved Ones Set Up Their Echo Show Remotely
To get started with Care Hub, open the Alexa app on your phone, then tap the three stacked lines in the bottom menu bar. Tap See More to expand the menu options. Tap Care Hub => Get Started.
The app will show you the ways in which Care Hub can help you take care of your relative. Then you can choose between Provide Support or Receive Support.
To set up Care Hub, the care receiver sends an invitation to the caregiver. When the caregiver accepts the invitation and other set up steps are completed, the Care Hub connection will be established.
For a detailed explanation of how to set up Care Hub, check out Amazon’s Care Hub Setup page.
What Else You Need to Know
As of now, Care Hub only works with one aging relative. You can’t use it to check on multiple members of your family. Similarly, only one caregiver can connect to a relative using Care Hub.
The ideal Care Hub setup is for both the loved one and the caregiver to have Echo Show devices in their homes so they can connect using video chat via Alexa Calling or Drop In.
Care Hub is available on all in-home Alexa-enabled devices that support Alexa Calling, including as Echo, Echo Dot, and Echo Show.
As of this writing, Care Hub is available in the U.S. only.
You can use Drop In to connect with someone without using Care Hub. You can ask Alexa to Drop In on anyone if they’ve enabled Drop In for their Alexa device and have designated you as a permitted contact for Drop In.
Your Thoughts
Have you struggled to support someone during the COVID-19 pandemic? Would Care Hub be helpful for you to check on an aging loved one? Which Care Hub features would be most useful to you?
Share your thoughts in the Comments section below!
Sounds like Alexa is giving children an easy out. Why not pick up the phone and call? We elderly don’t want to be spied on. We want human contact, love and support.👎
Hi Karen, Thank you for sharing your interesting perspective. You’re right, human contact, love, and support are ideal, but in these pandemic times human contact may not be as readily available as in normal times.
Care Hub doesn’t replace these things and may enhance the support children can give. For example, if an older relative falls and can’t get to a phone, they can ask Alexa for help using their voice.
Caregivers can also take comfort when they see Alexa activity of an older relative so they don’t have to check in constantly when they are concerned about an older relative living alone.
Care Hub is optional, both the care recipient and the caregiver have to give permission to connect. So anyone who is uncomfortable with Care Hub and views it as spying doesn’t have to agree to it.
It’s a good thing that they added this new feature, specially designed to help our aging love ones. The gradual growth of technology is unimaginable, making it hard for older people to cope up specially those who doesn’t have any social media access. Thank you for sharing such information, I will be able to notify my loved once about this new Alexa feature. 🙂
Hi Baguio, Yes, Care Hub is a way to help support older relatives even when they aren’t comfortable using technology. Care Hub can give peace of mind to both the caregiver and the older loved one.