Numerous devices have popped up in the market that makes your life more convenient and manageable. At the kick-off of the smart home, an era came Alexa, a tiny AI device that can be referred to as your virtual assistant. This smart device from Amazon can act as your digital assistant and help you play music, answer silly questions, read out news in brief, and can even turn your lights off or turn on your air purifier with a simple voice command. It will bring best things to ask Alexa and make your life easy.
Alexa is getting increasingly popular with people setting up smart homes. It is a mini speaker which has different versions ranging from basic to backyard speakers. As previously mentioned, this speaker can dish out music as well as organize your daily tasks. You can shoot questions and commands to this voice-controlled device and listen to your queries being answered.
This is also the best device to own if you are living alone. You can entertain yourself by asking silly questions to Alexa, even if it is a random question, and get it answered. She can say jokes for you, find out news stories, new tracks and even give you a detailed explanation about various interesting topics. Therefore, Alexa can be both entertaining and knowledgeable.
What are the Best Things to Ask Alexa
If you are a new Alexa owner you would be figuring out how to work the device and use it to its maximum potential. Here are a few things that you can ask Alexa when you get started.
1. Discovering Alexa’s Features
A simple, ‘’Alexa what can you do?’’ will push the smart device to give you a brief about its features. In case you are new to Alexa, it can help you to know more about it and also know what it can do to make your life easier. Once you get to know the features of your specific Alexa device at home it is easy to get accustomed to the mini speaker. Other things you can ask Alexa to explore are, “what new things have you learned?”, what can I do with more than one Echo device?”, etc.
2. Volume Controls
Once you ask Alexa to turn on music or a TV program, you can ask her to lower or increase the volume as per your need. You can ask Alexa to be louder or simply tell her the level of the volume you want on. For eg; “Alexa, volume 6.”
There is also a whisper mode for the times when you have to be quiet. If you have a sleeping baby in the next room you can’t shout out commands, this is when Alexa’s whisper mode comes to the rescue. You can either ask Alexa to enable the whisper mode or go to the Alexa app and enable the mode from the settings. This will help you have a soft night-time conversation with Alexa.
3. Communication
Similar to Google Assistant, Alexa can also answer and make calls for you. It can also drop a text to your friend on your command. “Alexa, hang up”, “Alexa, turn on ‘Do Not Disturb’”, “Alexa, play my messages”, “Alexa, message Mira”, are some commands you can try with this device.
Moreover, “Alexa, announce that dinner’s ready”, “Alexa, broadcast that we are leaving in five,” “Alexa, announce that I am heading home from the office,” are some commands that will make your life easier as a parent.
4. Donation
Alexa can help you donate to various non-profit organizations to make giving back to the world easy. Simply say “Alexa, make a donation” and the device will bring you options of numerous institutions to choose from. Or, if you have an institution in mind already say the name of the establishment after the command. Currently, there are over 200 charities that work with Amazon Alexa, including Love Justice International, Earth Day Network, Big Cat Rescue, Bread for the City Inc., and the Wikimedia Foundation.
5. Amazon Deals
If you ask “Alexa, what are your deals?” the device will recite a series of Amazon Prime member-exclusive deals. If you like anything that is being offered you can make a purchase, and ask Alexa for updates on your delivery status. If you want to repeat the order you can ask Alexa to do that as well.
You can visit Amazon’s voice shopping page to know the exact commands for shopping for different things that will trigger the device easily.
6. Play Music
You can not only as Alexa to play your favorite tracks but you can also tailor the music to your taste in case you are a true audiophile. You can ask the smart speaker to play a particular genre like country or Blues, pause and resume the track. You can ask her to increase the bass, reset the equalizer, set the treble level, set the bass level to improve the tonal clarity of your track.
Amazon Prime Music is the best user-friendly subscription service with Alexa. You can also play music if you have access to other subscription services. Just say “Alexa, play ‘I Mean It’ by G-Eazy on Spotify” or “Alexa, play ‘Summer Days’ by Macklemore on Apple Music” to dish out some bassy music at home.
7. Daily Music Pick
Amazon Music has introduced Daily Music Pick where a different artist shares a favorite music selection each day. Just say “Alexa, play the Daily Music Pick” and every day a new artist will select a song, album, or playlist that they have been enjoying at home. You will get to hear what they love about it from them as well. This feature requires an active Amazon Music Unlimited subscription or trial to enjoy the full experience.
8. Games
Alexa can do much more than playing your favorite songs. It can also play games with you. Playing games with Alexa is an immersive experience since it is voice-controlled. Many of the games involve background stories that she narrates. She gives you prompts, riddles, and clues that you solve to move up in the game. Some games include Dark Citadel, Yes Sire, Escape the room, etc. There are also games based on TV shows including Jeopardy, Deal or No Deal, and Guess the Price.
9. Weather Report
Alexa has built-in support for weather forecasts. Big Sky is one of the best Alexa skills for giving you accurate, updated weather information. It provides hyper-local forecasts based on your street address. It can predict dark skies, gloomy weather, rain, bright days, etc.
10. MyPetDoc
MyPetDoc is one of the best skills that Alexa possesses if you have companion dogs or other pets at home. Tell your pet’s symptoms and Alexa will ask follow-up questions and provide advice. If it can’t provide a diagnosis, it will forward your symptoms and phone number to a vet who will call you back in a short while.
11. Read Books
If reading is one of your hobbies Alexa makes it easier. If you have a Kindle subscription, Alexa can read out the book for you from where you left off. It can also read books from Audible. Commands like, “Alexa, read my Audible book”, “Alexa, what are popular audiobooks from Audible this week?”, “Alexa, go back 30 seconds,” “Alexa, stop reading in 20 minutes,” “Alexa, restart the chapter,” etc; can make your reading easier for you. You can also ask Alexa to tell you a story and it will pick one of the short stories and read it out to you.
These are a few useful things that you can ask Alexa. Alexa has several jokes up her sleeve so she can shoot one when you ask her to tell a joke. She can even rap in her style and also beatbox.
We hope with this information you will figure out all the features of Alexa so that you can use the device to its full potential.
More to read:
Know All About Alexa and its Flexible Functionalities.
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