The advancement in technology has made us more lethargic and we try to complete the task in a wink of eye. We always fall short of time as we are always pre occupied with numerous daily tasks and commitments and sometimes actually run against the time to complete our work. In this kind of situation, Amazon Alexa has proved a boon for all the Amazon customers. Amazon Alexa is a cloud based service allowing you to get the task accomplished through your voice command; the hands free movement will give make you multitasking where you can complete several task simultaneously.
Designing first Alexa enable device ECHO in 2014, Amazon today has several products and devices that support Alexa which can perform multiple tasks like can play your favorite music, make calls, set wake up alarms, providing weather and traffic updates and much more without using your hands. Today there are many your smart home devices such as lights, switches, thermostats etc that supports Alexa can make your work more easy and convenient. You can enable and disable Alexa skills by using the Alexa app or a web browser, similar to the way you install and uninstall apps on your smart phone or tablet.
Following are some of the skills which you can explore on Alexa app and can use them as per your convenience and requirements.
Meditation Timer: Relax, Focus & Sleep
Use Alexa to mediate and relax yourself from the daily hectic schedules, explore the sounds of a quiet forest while a gentle mist rolls through the trees, or listen to waves touching the sea shore etc that will make your mind more peaceful. Just ask “Alexa, open Meditation Timer”, after a welcome gesture you will be asked the duration for how long you want to meditate. You can choose the timing and duration for meditation as per your convenience.
The featured sound effects include that of a forest, rain among others; for opting a different soundscape to mediate simply say “ Alexa Play next”.
Overall ratings: 4.0 out of 5
Find My Phone
Through Alexa’s Find My Phone skill, you can easily track your lost phone, now it supports adding other numbers as well. Simply say “Alexa, Find My Phone” and Alexa will respond instantly to your voice command by making a call to your phone at any time. Also you can add number of any other family member, just say “Alexa, ask find my phone to add another number”, then say “Alexa, ask Find My Phone to call “.
There are some other phases as well such as “Alexa, ask find my phone for my contacts”, “Alexa, Find My Phone” and some other phases as well, Alexa supports only mobile numbers and not the landlines.
Overall ratings: 4.1 out of 5
OurGroceries
This Alexa skill will let you add items to the shopping lists on your OurGroceries app. Through this app you can immediately upload your grocery lists on all the iPhone and Android smartphones in your house without any kind of charges. Also you can know the recipes, take clicks of the items and can scan the barcodes as well. Then say, “Alexa, open OurGroceries”, and you will be instructed towards getting Echo device connected to your OurGroceries account. You can use the following phases:
- “Alexa, ask OurGroceries to add milk to shopping list.”
- “Alexa, tell OurGroceries to add coconut oil from Walmart.”
- “Alexa, ask OurGroceries what are my lists” and much more.
Overall ratings: 3.9 out of 5
Knowledge of the Gods
This is an entertaining trivia game which will increase your knowledge about Greek Mythology. The customers will be asked 5 questions with 4 possible answers, and they just have to speak the number which is correct. Presently, there are more than 100 questions available and will keep on increasing gradually. Some type of questions you can ask Alexa are “Alexa open knowledge of the gods”, or “Alexa, Mu answer is two” and much more.
Overall ratings: 3.8 out of 5
Smart Things
The inbuilt SmartThings skill in Alexa will allow you to easily monitor a wider range of smart home appliances including lights, switches, dimmers, outlets, thermostats, and door locks with your voice. You can connect lights, switches, and dimmers from Philips Hue, LIFX, OSRAM Lightify, Cree, GE, and Leviton and can ask the beneath phrases from Alexa
- “Alexa, turn on the Bedroom light;
- “Alexa, turn off the Hallway lights”
- “Alexa, dim the Living Room lights”
- “Alexa, dim the Living Room lights to 25%”
- ”Alexa, brighten the Kitchen lights” and much more without using your hands.
You can also connect your door locks from Yale, Schlage, and Kwikset and can ask “Alexa, lock the Front Door” or “Alexa, lock the Kitchen Door” and many other tasks with your voice command. To start taking the advantage, select the “Enable Skill” button in the Alexa App and connect your SmartThings or Samsung account and explore new devices.
Overall ratings: 3.0 out of 5
Amazon Storytime
With Amazon Storytime, you can start narrating interesting stories to your kids. Amazon Storytime is a free Alexa skill that has a vast collection of professionally narrated short stories for kids aged between 5 to 12 years. Follwong phrases can be asked from Alexa:
- Alexa, open Amazon storytime.
- Alexa, ask Amazon Storytime to read me a story.
Cartoon Player
This feature is especially designed for the Amazon Echo Show; the cartoon player collects 17 friendly, classic cartoons from the public domain and makes them available for Alexa to play. Kids can play a random cartoon quickly with using their voice ‘ Alexa, ask Cartoon Player to play a cartoon’. You can select a cartoon as per your preference, and Alexa will ‘play cartoons’ accordingly.
Also if the Kids have any particular preference they can say “Alexa, ask Cartoon Player to play the Cinderella cartoon’ or ‘ask Cartoon Player to play the camping cartoon’.
Alexa enable you to get entertained with these old time classics in a whole and innovative way.
Overall ratings: 3.8 out of 5
Pick a Restaurant
Feeling confused about where and what to eat. Does not worry Alexa have a solution to it. Use Restaurant Decider to suggest you with some food option from a variety of restaurant types. From Italian to Mexican food to Chinese, the Restaurant Decider will give you a plenty of possible options. Simply say “Alexa, ask Restaurant Decider where can I eat?” or “What type of restaurant do you recommend”? etc. You can get best recommendations from Alexa.
How to start using Alexa Skills
Using these skills is very easy and convenient, even for the first time buyers. You have to follow the beneath set of instructions to get the required Alexa skills installed on the Alexa enabled devices. These devices are available at affordable rates with Amazon Coupons
- First of all explore the required skill and then click the Enable
- In the Alexa app, you can click on the main menu button which is on the upper left-hand corner of the screen and then select the Skills option, and then you can choose from the mentioned Alexa skills as per the category.
- The customers who are using Amazon’s website rather than Alexa app have to first log in using their account credentials that is connected with Alexa-enabled device.
- Then click on the drop-down menu and select Alexa Skills from a wide range of skills that are mentioned there. You will be diverted to the Alexa Skills section of the website you’re your initial search is completed.
- After clicking the Enable button for a particular skill, it will be activated on all of your Alexa-enabled devices. Now start taking the maximum benefit of Alexa skills in your daily routine schedules.
There are numerous other skills or tasks which can be performed effectively by Alexa, shop for the best Alexa enabled devices to get all your queries solved in various areas such as food & drink, home services, news and whether update, shopping and much more that can save your lot of time through voice searches.
