After the typical steps, you’d go through to add a modern Wi-Fi product to your home, Astro prompts you to enroll your family members so it can recognize their faces, an experience that is, again, like enrolling for Face ID. Astro uses this info to greet household members when it sees them silently, and so you can tell it to go to members of your household. It’s also used to identify unknown people when in surveillance mode. The most unique aspect of the Astro setup experience, though, is how it learns about your home. You activate a discovery mode where Astro drives around the floor. Once it builds a map of your home (which you can view at any time and use to block off areas), you give it a home tour in which it follows you around and listens as you tell it the name of which room it’s in. My wife commented that the process evoked the way a duckling imprints on its mother. A unique aspect of Astro is its relationship with Alexa, which is a part of it and yet separate from it. On the one hand, Astro functions as an Echo Show and will respond to your Alexa wake word. On the other hand, it has its own identity and will also respond to the wake word “Astro.” I like the ability to address Astro specifically as, even at launch, it can respond to many requests that would cause an Echo to throw up its hands (if it had them). An endearing, if token, example that shows off the early development of Astro’s personality is asking it to dance, which has it shake its, um, cargo area for a bit as a tune plays. Speaking of which, Astro’s loudspeakers, amplified by the floor, have no problem dropping the bass. In contrast to chatty Alexa, Astro has no voice of its own, communicating exclusively through its display and the beeping sound effects associated with C-3PO’s rolling companion. There are many details to understanding the Astro experience, but here are some of the main things that struck me.
Astro knows its way around
Unencumbered by the need to suck up dust like a plodding vacuum, Astro’s big wheels allow it to speedily move around your home fast enough that its momentum can carry it over small bumps. And unlike those vacuums that need to get close to detect an obstacle’s presence, then back up and turn, Astro’s wide field of view and knowledge of your home layout allow it to move around more like a pet would. This lets it quickly complete tasks such as, “Astro, go to the kitchen.”
