Can confirm that you do not need the dock to enter show mode. Can confirm that you can not get to AT while in show mode. If you have AT loaded in regular tablet mode, you can say, “Alexa, Exit Show Mode” and then AT will pop up. To enter back into Show Mode, you can say "Alexa, Lauch Show Mode.
Can confirm that Blink camera still doesn’t show on the Fire Tablets even in show mode.
Can confirm that you can drop in on a device but a device can not drop in on the tablet.
Can confirm that in Show Mode, the announcements from Echo devices goes to the tablet. (not true if not in Show Mode)
Switching between show mode and regular mode is a simple swipe down and clicking show mode on/off. Update: Can also say, "Alexa, Luanch Show Mode or Alexa, “Exit Show Mode”. This is useful for Action Tiles
All in all, the Tablets in Show Mode, act just like the Echo Show which is pretty cool.
Cons:
Tablets mics are no where near as good as the Echo devices. With an Echo device, you can typically say Alexa and what you want in one smooth sentence. With the Tablets, you have to wait for the blue light then go. At least in my experience.
You can not drop in on the Tablet. This feature would have allowed for the un-pairing of Tablet/Dot in each of my rooms. I love the drop in feature and the announce feature!
Show supports more cameras like the Blink cameras.
No manual way to invoke Alexa while in Show Mode.
Pros:
Not locked in to just what the Echo Show has to offer but also have a full out right tablet!
You now have a Show features on a 10" screen so the visual feedback is much better. Especially videos.
Without show mode, it still listens for Alexa wake word though correct? If it does that, it might be possible to keep AT up and get Alexa to play music etc in the background perhaps?
With Alexa hands free enabled (non Show Mode), you can use the Tablets just like any other Echo device.
Music does play in the background with AT up and running. Playing music is one of the main uses of my Kitchen Fire HD8! It’s connected to a soundbar that has a remote sub woofer.
Before the update, I could get a lot of the features that the Show offered. The visuals were just a little different.
The things that I couldn’t do was:
Add the Tablets to music groups
Drop in on Tablets
Show Blink Cameras
Running full versions of Fully Kiosk on most of my Tablets.
I just realized my woot refurbs are all 6th gen so I guess none of these things apply to me. I wonder why the put the cutoff at 7th gen for hands free. Weird.
Maybe processing power? I’ve been playing around with a couple of 10s and 8s. I prefer the Show’s interface when interacting with Alexa. Alexa on tablets in regular mode do “show”<—pun intended much of the same information but just in a different format. You really are not missing much.
The show is cool because the speaker is big enough to actually use and it is just better at being a visual feedback display for Alexa. However, it’s functions are limited.
Saying all that, most of my tablets stay parked in Action Tile Mode which is fine for me considering how cheap they are.
AT is not accessible in Show Mode because there isn’t a way to navigate to a browser.
tgauchat
(ActionTiles.com co-founder Terry @ActionTiles; GitHub: @cosmicpuppy)
12
Darn!
Hopefully the “Show Interface” will evolve substantially (Echo sure has, I think; and, heck, having “show mode on Fire tablets” itself is a major step.
There’s no reason that verbal commands shouldn’t be usable to navigate to tablet apps … such as any browser; but it would have to properly fit in the overall UI.
