A:Answer My opinion is that this product is first and foremost a Garmin product. It, in collaboration with Amazon, incorporated Alexa into the device. Unless a skill or ability is an Amazon "product", you will notice that you have to tell Alexa to open or use a particular non-Amazon skill or ability. Garmin needs to be recognized for its products on this device, i.e., navigation and dash cam.
I have used Alexa since its first iteration in the Amazon Echo when it was first released. I was, as you are now, disappointed that I had to tell Alexa to tell XYZ to do something when requesting a skill of a third-party company. It was not natural and mostly, one had to remember the third-party's name to get the skill to work. I was hoping then that as Alexa evolved, one would not need to do this but alas, no such luck. I believe the technology is there but for business and possibly legal reasons, we continue to have to name the skill we need.
Despite knowing this, I tried to skip telling Alexa to ask Garmin and just requested Alexa to do this or that with navigation. It is hit and miss this way. Sometimes I am surprised it works and sometimes it doesn't. So I just tell Alexa to tell her friend Garmin to do the navigation chores now.
Nevertheless, I really like the Garmin Speak Plus despite this shortcoming and that the dash cam's field of vision is only about 82 degrees. Would have preferred it to be about 140 degrees. Overall, it is a great product and I look forward to the next version of this device which I hope will have an increased field of vision and a parking mode.
