Here’s What You Can Do With Amazon Alexa
Amazon Alexa has been around for the better part of a decade and can do everything from inform you about the weather, control your smart home products, let you shop on Amazon, and even tell you jokes or sing to you. song.
Alexa can be found on a number of devices, such as speakers like the new Echo Pop and Echo Show 8 , as well as other devices like TVs, soundbars, or even smart thermostats like Ecobee . Amazon has poured billions into the technology behind it, and while it hasn’t quite lived up to the company’s hopes (turns out people don’t like buying products on Amazon without being able to view product pages), it’s still a major player in the AI assistant space .
Want to learn more about Amazon’s voice assistant? I’ll explain everything below.
What is Alexa?
In short, Alexa is the name of the voice you hear when you talk to an Alexa-enabled speaker like the Amazon Echo. When you talk to Alexa, you’re essentially talking to Amazon’s cloud service called Alexa Voice Service (AVS) .
Alexa Voice Service (AVS) was designed to act as if you were talking to an assistant, and by using certain voice commands, you can force the service to perform specific tasks. When you say “Alexa,” it’s a “wake word” that allows the service to start listening to your voice and commands, such as “What’s the weather?”
Although Alexa is the default “wake word” for Amazon’s voice assistant, you can change the wake word to “Amazon,” “Computer,” or “Echo.”
Recommended Alexa-enabled products:
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Echo Dot Smart Speaker $34.99
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Echo Pop Smart Speaker $24.99
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Amazon Fire TV 50-inch – $319.99.
Where did the name Alex come from?
David Limp, a former Amazon executive who oversaw the development of Alexa since its inception, said in an interview that the name Alexa was chosen for several reasons: the first was that the name Alexa has a hard consonant with the letter X, which helps the software recognize the word awakening with greater accuracy. Another reason was that Alex’s name is a reference to the Library of Alexandria, which attempted to collect all the world’s knowledge in one place.
Where is Alexa available?
Everywhere. Just kidding! (But not really.) The more complete answer is that Alexa can be found on hundreds of devices, but the most common and popular devices are made by Amazon and include the Echo line of speakers like the Echo , Echo Dot , and Echo. Show .
Alexa can also be found on Fire TV devices, including the Fire TV Stick and Fire TV-enabled TVs. But it’s not just Amazon devices: this voice assistant is also available on third-party devices like Sonos speakers, smart glasses, and smart thermostats like the ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium .
What can Alexa do?
The list of things Alexa can do continues to grow. Amazon calls these actions “Skills.” By default, Alexa can perform a number of basic skills , such as checking the weather, reading the news, setting timers, and playing music, among many others.
To do more with your Alexa-powered device, you’ll need to enable the skill in the Amazon Skill Store in the Alexa app . Some skills in the store are compatible with third-party devices and services, including smart home technologies such as Philips Hue, games such as Jeopardy, and remote start/lock for Ford, BMW, GM, Hyundai and Honda vehicles.
Alexa can also be used for everyday tasks: when you say “Alexa, good morning,” your Echo speaker will turn on the lights, tell you the weather, and play the news from your Flash briefing.
Amazon is expanding Alexa’s capabilities to make it more intuitive and useful in our daily lives.