Amazon’s (AMZN) popular virtual assistant Alexa has many tricks up its sleeve. Although everyone is familiar enough with its ability to play music, set up a timer or answer questions, Alexa has many more features. Here are eight underused ones you should know about.
If both your Echo device and your TV are bluetooth-supported you can ask Alexa to connect, turning your device into a speaker! Or if you own a Fire Stick you can use the Alexa app’s “set up audio system” function to use your Echo device as your TV’s speaker.
If you can’t find your phone just ask Alexa to ping it by saying ‘Alexa, find my phone’.
If you’re trying to be discreet, so can Alexa! In fact you don’t even have to ask it to be so: if you whisper your comment to Alexa, it will respond back in a quieter voice.
If you have multiple Alexa-enabled devices at home, like Echo, Echo Show and Fire TV, you can use them to make one-way announcements across the household. Just start your prompt with “Announce” or “Tell everyone” or “Tell [name]” and the other Alexas in your household will make the announcement for you. You can tell your spouse that dinner is ready, or your kids that it’s bed time without having to yell.
Another feature you can use with multiple Alexa-enabled devices is “drop in.” You can ask Alexa to “drop in” on one or more of your Echo devices to have a conversation throughout your house. You can also drop in on friends and family who own Alexa-enabled devices and have you added as a contact on the Alexa app to use the devices as a two-way intercom.
Alexa’s “routines” function can help you enable a series of customizable functions in response to your commands. You can enable the already existing ones by clicking through the featured routines section in the Alexa app, or make your own. For example, you can have Alexa update you about the weather, traffic and major news of the day every morning with the simple command “Alexa, start my day.” Or you can have it turn off the lights in your room and play white noise when you say “Alexa it’s bedtime.”
You can also link routines to actions or have them be recurring. For example, you can have Alexa tell you the weather when you dismiss your alarm in the morning, or have it automatically turn on your porch lights every night at sunset. The possibilities are endless!
Ask Alexa what the meaning of life is. She will answer with “42", a nod to the famous book series Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Alexa records any of the voice commands you give her, and it also might record anything you say after it mistakenly hears a wake word. The recordings are used to improve the accuracy of your future interactions with Alexa, according to Amazon, and deleting them can “degrade your experience.” But if you would like to, you absolutely can. If it’s a specific thing you’d like to get rid of just tell Alexa to “delete what I just said” or “delete everything I said today.” Or you can ask it to delete your entire voice history too.
