During Amazon’s Black Friday sale, anyone can buy an Echo Show 8 (2nd Gen) smart display for $70. With this lesser-known deal, you can get that same discount on the Echo Show 8 plus a six-month free trial to Amazon’s Alexa Together, Amazon’s elder-care service for people caring for friends or relatives who are aging in place. Read our Alexa Together review if you’re not familiar with it.
This deal represents a savings of $120 on top of the $60 discount on the Echo Show 8. If you decide you don’t want to continue your Alexa Together subscription, you’ll need to cancel it before the trial ends, or it will automatically renew on a month-to-month basis at $20 per month.
With Alexa Together, you can set up daily alerts to be informed when the person you’re helping first summons Alexa, as well as get a notification if that doesn’t happen by a certain time each day, an indication that your loved one might need assistance. You can also set up reminders on the person’s Echo—e.g., “don’t forget to take your medication,” “walk the dog at 2 p.m.,” and so on.
Amazon only requires that the person being cared for have an Echo device in their home. Caregivers (up to 10 people can participate) need only have the Alexa app on their mobile device, although all participants will need to have Amazon accounts.
If the person being cared for needs immediate assistance, they can use any Echo device to call an Amazon helpline agent, who will notify the police, the fire department, or an ambulance on the customer’s behalf. With the help of a third-party device capable of fall detection–the AltumView security camera ($250), SkyAngelCare pendant ($170), and/or the wall-mounted Vayyar fall-detection device ($245), for example—an Echo device enrolled in Alexa Together will automatically call Amazon’s 24/7 Urgent Response emergency helpline.
