Hi all! I have an Iphone 12 Pro, latest OS and a 2022 ES 350. I set up voice recognition and set up both the lexus and alexa-lexus apps. However, whenever I do an Alexa voice command in the car, no action occurs even for something as simple as asking for the weather. Any thoughts or is it a pretty unreliable integration anyway?

 

The "Lexus+Alexa" app is terrible IMHO. It works over BT only so it doesn't work with CarPlay activated. I use the "Amazon Alexa" app instead and activated the Lexus skill. That is where it shines. I use Amazon Echo to remote/start/lock/etc the car from within the house. You can even use it to find out how more miles to go before you run out of fuel and the number of miles on your odometer. It is nicely integrated.

 

The iPhone's microphone is used to listen for the "Alexa" attention word. Assuming you have both the Lexus and Lexus + Alexa apps running on your iPhone, ensure you've granted the Lexus + Alexa app permission to use the microphone, (You can verify the permission setting in the Settings [app]->Privacy->Microphone->Lexus + Alexa slider ON.)

 

I tried to use Lexus+Alexa for one day and it was a terrible experience. Maybe I’m doing something wrong but I cannot figure it out.

 

The performance of the Lexus + Alexa and Toyota + Alexa apps for Lexus and Toyota vehicles has been, at best, inconsistent and, mostly, poor. It has been especially bad for use with Android phones. It seems that, when there is an operating system update or any other update, it is likely that the app will stop working.

I've been trying to use the app (Toyota + Alexa) for over a year and a half. Even when it is working (sort of), there will be times when it is unable to connect, and, again, when there are updates, it is likely that it won't work at all until Lexus/Toyota figures out how to make it work again, and that can take weeks or longer.

Over the last year and a half, I'm sure that I've spent more time trying to get the app working than I ever would have spent actually using the app. Besides spending hours on the phone with Toyota support, I've spent hours doing things like deleting and re-installing the app on the phone, deleting all personal data from the car, etc. Only my own OCD tendencies and the belief that, if something is supposed to work, I'm going to make it work, have caused me to continue to spend/waste time trying to get it to consistently work.

The reality is that it is possible to do most of what I might want to do by using the car's voice command and other features, and, if there is something that can only be done with Alexa, I can do it with the regular Alexa app on my phone.

 

I just don’t understand the design intent for the Lexus + Alexa app. As Lesz stated, I also use Siri on the iPhone (and I know Android phones have Google assistant) or Apple Watch - or the voice commands built into the car. This feels like the proverbial solution in search of a problem. In my case, I tried it out after a bit of struggle to initially get it working and just couldn’t see any need that it filled. I do see some use for using the Lexus skill on Alexa to perform functions like remote start, but to my perception that would only be useful at home. The bottom line for me is that after initial testing I haven’t used it enough to have an opinion as to its reliability. If people are finding good uses for it I would love to hear about it.

 

Until a few years ago, Lexus was using a separate smart phone app, the Enform app suite, for apps.

A few years ago (the exact year depends on the model), Lexus stopped using the Enform app suite and, instead, integrated apps, including the Lexus + Alexa app, into the Lexus app. I think that the problems with the Lexus + Alexa app are related to the integration of the apps into the Lexus app. The 2017 ES350 that I owned until about 9 months ago used the Enform app suite, and Alexa and other apps that it included worked, for the most part, seamlessly, but those with problems with Alexa (and other apps) seem to be with newer cars that have their apps integrated into the Lexus app. It appears that the integration of other apps into the Lexus app has not been ready for prime time.

 

I see the value of Enform app suite before the advent of Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Not long after auto manufacturers start to abandon their plan to make their own in-vehicle app ecosystem as they can't compete with Google and Apple. It was a miss opportunity.

 

Wow this is really great! I was worried it might have been something with the car, but seems its just not reliable. The outside app integration (like asking for gas remaining or remote start) is pretty nice tho!

 

It is nice indeed. Lexus skill in Amazon Echo is better than Apple Siri integration at this moment as its natural language parsing is superior and allows for more flexibility.