The End of Something Great

My second daughter started to fall in love with the story of The Three Little Pigs. Of course, I wanted to encourage any love of reading and would try to read it to her whenever she wanted and whenever I could muster the energy.

Finally, I had the chance to get close to my Google Mini while my child was near and brought the book and I was SO EXCITED to use the read along feature that was a game changer with my older daughter several years ago. It was magical. As you read, it would play music and create sound effects.

This is not an easy fete. It requires constantly listening by the mic and acoustic echo cancellation to not let the music interfere with what the mic is listening. It also requires creativity from the team putting this together to understand timing.

When it was released, I immediately went out and bought a bunch of the books that were supported. Now, I’m left with some disappointment. Most of the supported titles have been discontinued and the feature is limited to the US.

I’m hopefully some version will come along. Novel Effect on Alexa seems to be doing something to this… effect.

Read along books are a killer app for these devices. They create a unique experience. We need to see more of these types of app.