Triby review: A speaker, message-board device is an obvious home for Amazon’s Alexa
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Alexa-enabled devices have potential, but they also have some flaws to overcome.
Valentina Pallidino
Amazon's Alexa has made its way into many homes, but now she's
branching out. The voice assistant has always been an open platform, and
we've seen a number of companies add support for Alexa to their
services over the past year. Now, we're starting to see Alexa in
products other than Amazon's Echo devices—the first one is a cute little
speaker named Triby. The $199 multitasking device is a message board,
radio, speaker, and an Alexa vessel all in one, and with its
magnetic back, it's being billed as a perfect kitchen companion.
Triby will give us some idea of how well other companies will be able
to integrate Alexa into their products. But also, and arguably more
interestingly, it shows how companies are thinking about
third-party hardware for Alexa and what these devices could and should
be.
Design: Little refrigerator bot
Triby doesn't resemble the sleek, modern devices we're used to seeing
today. It's got a square, bumper-encased body and a handle on top, and
it resembles a flattened lunch box. The bumper helps protect Triby from
unexpected falls, and that plus the rounded corners make it safe for
kids to manhandle. The rest of its surface is covered in holes, since
it's mostly a portable speaker, and it has a couple of physical buttons
on its face for making calls, switching between radio stations, and
playing or pausing music. Its rectangular e-ink display shows the date,
time, and temperature by default. Since it's supposed to be a kitchen
companion, it has two large magnets on the back so you can stick it to
your refrigerator.
There's a curious yellow "flag" sitting in a slot on Triby's left
side; it pops out when a member of your group sends a message to Triby
(more on groups later). You can push it back in to let the sender know
you've seen the message, like a physical version of a read receipt.
Triby's opposite side has a big square button for manually waking Alexa
for a voice command and a square hole for its charging cable.
Maybe it's the buttons or the toy-like design, but for some reason I
really liked fiddling with Triby. It's pleasantly childlike without
being too dumbed-down, and navigating it is easy once you know all of
the buttons. Working from home, I'd tote Triby from room to room if I
was listening to the radio and if I wanted to use Alexa in whatever room
I was in. Triby has background noise cancellation technology built-in,
too, so I could just as easily command Alexa from across my apartment.
Valentina Palladino
Two radio buttons let you listen to programmed stations easily.
Features: Alexa with a lot of hardware-focused extras
Let's talk about the elephant in the room first: Alexa. Triby is the
first Alexa-enabled product made by a company other than Amazon. Unlike
Apple with Siri, Amazon is letting other companies integrate Alexa and
all her features into their products. As a speaker, Triby seems like an
obvious fit for this, and it serves as a solid vessel for Amazon's voice
assistant. Alexa works the same way as she does in the Echo and
Amazon's other products—just say her name, ask questions, and she will
answer.
All of the native Alexa features work when used via Triby—music
control with Prime music, Flash Briefing news updates, shopping list and
to-do list updates, smart home device control, and more. Aside from the
short jingle Triby emits as soon as you wake Alexa, the experience is
much the same as using an Echo. However, I do think the Echo is slightly
more accurate and faster than Triby in recognizing the word "Alexa" and
hearing what I want to say. Sometimes I would say her name and the
Triby would stay silent, or it would take Triby an extra few seconds to
execute my demands.
There are also some things that Amazon products can do with Alexa
that Triby can't. While you can stream Spotify music from your
smartphone to Triby's speakers, you cannot ask Alexa to play certain
music from your Spotify account. Also, many of Alexa's third-party
skills don't work on Triby; the silly fortune cookie skill worked while
the even sillier boo skill didn't. In the same vein, some Alexa features
were a little spotty sometimes. For example, The Wall Street Journal's
tech briefing segment in my news update didn't work—Alexa simply went
silent when she got to that—but the other contributing sources to my
Flash Briefing worked just fine. We’ve reached out to Triby and Amazon
to find out more about what services do and don’t work, and we’ll update
the review if we get a response.
Clearly there are kinks to using Alexa on a non-Amazon device, other
than the occasional slowness. On the bright side, Triby will
automatically receive all of the updates that Alexa receives, so the
experience should consistently be similar to that of Amazon's native
products.
Aside from Alexa, Triby is basically part radio, part e-ink
walkie-talkie. I used the radio feature a lot more than I thought I
would. You can set two priority radio stations to the two radio buttons
on Triby and then add a bunch of stations to access via the small list
button below them. I love listening to the radio on and off all day, and
it's much easier to use the buttons to quickly browse through my
favorite stations than ask Alexa to turn on one station or another.
Triby is very mobile within the home, too, since you can pick it up
and bring it around with you. Amazon's Echo has to stay in one place
since it needs a power source to operate. Triby can last up to two weeks
on a single charge if you only use its basic functions, but a lot of
Alexa use will drop the battery life down to days. Pressing and holding
the push-to-talk button on its side will turn off Triby's microphones
that are always listening for Alexa, and that will help conserve
battery.
In addition to being a speakerphone when connected via Bluetooth to
your smartphone, you can make VoIP calls from Triby to anyone in your
household group. Similarly to the radio buttons, you can assign group
members to each phone button and then more in the list button. Just tap
to call them, and they receive the call through the Triby app on their
smartphone. I can see how this would be perfect for children at home
alone who need to contact family members quickly. Otherwise, it's only
as convenient as Triby's placement in your home: if you keep it stuck to
your fridge, it could be useful to give your partner a ring to ask them
to pick up groceries before coming home. However, if my phone was
within reach in that situation, I'd probably just use it to call them.
The other big Triby feature is the e-ink messaging system. Through
the app, you can scribble or type out messages to send to Triby, and
they'll pop up on its e-ink display. When a new message comes through,
the yellow flag on Triby's side pops out, and whoever sees the message
can push it back in to let you know they saw it. They can also press the
emoji button right below the flag to respond with an emoji, which is a
cute touch.
Again, I see this as a family-oriented feature that allows members to
communicate with each other using a somewhat stationary object. Parents
could message Triby to tell their kids to clean up the living room or
start preparing dinner if they know the kids will be home before them,
or even leave little notes for partners who may have different work
schedules. Triby emits a little sound whenever a message comes through,
so those at home will hear when there's messaging activity going on. Any
message you send Triby could just as easily be sent as a text message,
but the point of Triby (or Echo) is that it's anchored to your home, and
it's meant to be used communally, where phones are more personal
devices.
Triby app: Scribbled messages, VoIP calls, radio stations, and more
The Triby app for Android and iOS is just as cute as the Triby
itself. When you open it up, you'll see a list of all the messages
you've typed or scribbled to Triby's e-ink display. The app saves them
all automatically, so if you frequently send your partner "I'll be home
soon" when you're running late coming out of work, you can just tap and
send it rather than write it out anew every time. You can use the
keyboard on your smartphone to type out a message or draw one with your
fingers, which is a simple yet pleasant idea to make Triby messages more
personal than regular texts. Emojis are included in the messaging
system, and I liked how they are basically stenciled, black-and-white
versions of traditional emojis.
When you first set up Triby, you'll make a "group" for all the people in your household.
The app's bottom toolbar lets you hop between calls, radio, and
settings. You can make VoIP calls to anyone in your group at any time,
including the Triby itself. That comes in handy if you have children at
home who don't own smartphones (yes, there are still a few out there),
and I found the speaker quality to be decent even if the sound is a
little dull. Anyone I called from Triby using its microphone said my
voice came through loud and clear as well.
The radio tab lets you scroll through and search for numerous radio
stations to assign to Triby's physical buttons. Even though I assigned
two more stations to its list button, I used the first and second radio
buttons more. When switching to a list-programmed station, you need to
press the list button once on Triby, scroll to the station you want, and
then just leave it there for a second or two before the station turns
on. It's not hard, but there's more wait time involved than when you
just use the first two buttons.
The settings menu is typical. There you can change Triby's name and
color designation, modify the e-ink display with clock and temperature
views, edit the call and radio buttons, and sign in to Amazon to
activate Alexa. You can also add or delete members from your group and
update your Wi-Fi settings. Once you set up the call and radio buttons,
you shouldn't have to go into settings for much at all. Group members
aren't likely to change very often, but you can add or delete them as
you please.
According to Triby's website, the only information that group members
need to join are the e-mail address and password that you used during
Triby setup. Once they have signed into the group, they can claim one of
the avatars you made during setup or choose their own avatar in the
app. I tried this with my boyfriend who lives an hour away from me, and
it worked without a hitch. He was able to send me little e-ink notes
throughout the day even before he claimed his avatar, and once he did, I
assigned him to the second call button on Triby so I could ring him at
any time.
Good use of Alexa, not a replacement for Echo
Any of these new Alexa-enabled devices will be compared to Echo,
especially if the hardware is a speaker of any sort. Physically, Triby
is quite similar to Echo in many ways, however its hardware differences
allow it to receive e-ink messages and make VoIP calls—both things that
Echo cannot do. Echo wasn't built to be a connector of people as it has
no speakerphone functionality nor messaging capabilities. However, Echo
is a more capable speaker as it lets you listen to music from a variety
of sources (including radio from TuneIn or iHeartRadio) and it has the
entire skills store for you to browse and add new features to Alexa.
If you want the fullest experience of Alexa, it's still best to go
with one of Amazon's products. That will ensure you'll have every
feature Alexa could possibly have, with fewer hiccups that can occur
from using her on a third-party device. However, Triby is a
useful device for large, busy families that want to stay connected via
their homes. Triby acts like a tangible (yet largely digital) home base
so you can communicate with everyone in your household through a device
that everyone will see at some point during the day. I do think it's
slightly overpriced at $199, especially considering the Echo is $179,
but I also see its potential to be one of those devices that you use
every day without realizing how much you use it.
The Good
Cute design that easily lets you take Alexa, a radio, and a primitive messaging system around the house with you.
Makes it easy for family members to communicate with VoIP calling and e-ink display for messages.
Group members can join just by having the e-mail and password associated with the account.
The Bad
Some of Alexa's features don't work on Triby, including Spotify music playback and some skills.
Triby's Alexa is slower and more prone to hiccups than Echo's Alexa.
If you use Alexa a lot, you'll end up charging Triby more frequently.
More expensive than the Echo at $199.
The Ugly
Triby is only as effective as how many people in your household
decide to pay attention to it and use it instead of their smartphones.
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