We use our Alexas/echos for turning on and off lights and ceiling fans and the like. For instance, we have one Alexa near our garage door, which we can tell to "turn off all lights" or "turn off/on outside lights". Our kids use them for playing music and playing nature sounds (eg, rain on a metal roof) for going to bed.
Alexa/echo now has announcements. Basically, this is a one-way broadcast to other echos. We made the mistake of letting the kids know of this functionality. They like to say things like "When are we having lunch? We're hungry", when you're trying to take a nap on the couch. They even got into a fight over the vacuous statements they started making.
Anyway, it's a good tool, such as for letting the kids know dinner is ready, but be forewarned: they're going to want to use this feature, too.
