I find voice recognition on mine excellent. She will (hopefully) learn the more you use her.
I use mine all the time, ask it questions, timers, reminders, shopping lists, music, works with the tp-link smart plug.
There's also a huge list of skills that you can add on. eg what on TV. Wheelie bin reminder and lots of fun stuff.
We'll have to see how she grows on the family, it'll be interesting.
I'm afraid they can become quite addictive, everyone I know who bought one has ended up buying at least one more.
My brother has just ordered his 4th (or 5th if you include the limited abilities of the firestick). Couple of other friends have ordered another during this latest offer.
Then someone else I know ordered his first one on Friday, but by Saturday evening was saying he wanted another.