amazon alexa

As you know Amazon introduced the mighty voice assistant popularly known as Alexa. With the release of Alexa, the voice assistant is almost everywhere now. From your house to work, from car rides to restaurants. Alexa is basically a voice assistant that works in Echo, Echo studio, Dash Wand, Echo Snow, and even Amazon Fire TV.

By the end of the day, you’ll forget that is a virtual assistant and end up finding that you talk to her often. And why Alexa has become so popular recently is because it has to learn from Alexa Commands and generate a more perky response.

Alexa: How to Summon Her? 

So how do you exactly summon Alexa? Well, summoning Alexa is no hard task. The minute you connect to Alexa, you’d have to wake her up just by calling out her name, Alexa. But if you wish to change the wake-up word, then you can only change it to Echo, Computer or Amazon.

If you have Amazon Fire Stick then you’d have to wake Alexa using a button provided in the remote. However, Amazon has recently introduced a function called “The Follow-Up Mode”. Because of this, you would not need to keep repeating the wake-up word to Alexa.

Alexa will keep listening to whatever you say after the first command. Additionally, she won’t stop listening to you until and unless you end the conversation by saying the word “Stop”. 

Where to Get Alexa From? 

Since Alexa is a voice assistant, you can get to use it by enabling Amazon Echo. It can also work on any third-party device speaker but for that, you’d have to enable the Alexa application. The application is available on Play store for android devices, and on Apple Store for iOS devices. You can also get access to Alex from the Amazon shopping application.

But make sure you note down one thing. If you decide to use Alexa through a mobile device, then Alexa won’t be able to recognize the word just like that. But, instead, you’d have to press on the icon for Alexa.

Then it will sincerely listen to your command. Also, the follow-up function is not available in the Alexa application so you’d have to wait until the first command has been responded to. Only then you can place the second command to Alexa.

That being said, there are some other things that may just not work in the mobile version. For example, important reminders or some particular features may not work. But it can work perfectly in Amazon Echo. 

How does Alexa Work? 

Alexa, at the end of the day, is a voice assistant. Alexa would respond to alexa commands that are already in their database. So what she does is record the command. Then, she sends the recording to the server for a better analysis.

Now Amazon, upon receiving the recording, breaks down the command into separate sounds or rather an individual sound. It then gets in touch with the database which is already filled with sounds of alphabets and words. Then, it produces a combination of words and Alexa responds with a reply which closely makes sense to the command you’ve generated.

For example, if your command consists of the word “Temperature”, then Alexa, would launch the “Weather” application for you. Or give you the current stats of the weather in your locality. 

List of Alexa Commands that Responds to!

Now that you know how Alexa works, it is needless to say the following Alexa commands keep expanding. However, there is no such necessity to pronounce the Alexa commands as per the information below. This is because Alexa understands keyphrases and based on what makes sense with the word, she looks for the most probable answer for you. Here’s what you can tell Alexa to do for you:

1. Basic Alexa Commands

  1. If you want Alexa to help you, simply say, “Alexa, help”. 
  2. To make a conversation, say “Alexa, let’s chat”.
  3. If you want to mute or unmute Alexa, say “Alexa, mute’. Or say, “Alexa, unmute”. 
  4. To stop Alexa from the functioning of pausing, try saying, “Alexa, Stop”. Or say, “Alexa, shut up” 
  5. To make alternations in volume settings, say “Alexa, decrease/increase the volume to 5”. Or say, “Alexa, turn up the music volume to 9”. 

2. Echo Show 

The echo show, on the other hand, is a device that is capable of showing you visuals when you place a query. Here’s a list of things you can ask Alexa to show you;

  1. You can ask the Echo show to give you a quick tour of what it has to show you. Simply say, “Alexa, is there anything that you’d like to show me?”
  2. To know what day of which month it is, ask Alexa to show the calendar. Say, “Alexa, show me today’s date and month in Calendar”. 
  3. If you want to see pictures of yourself from the Gallery, say, “Alexa, show me my pictures. If it is something specific that you want to see, then say, “Alexa, show me pictures of my dog”. 
  4. To open the camera, say “Alexa, open the camera for me”. 
  5. If you’d like to see trailer of a movie you like, say, “Alexa, show me the trailer for Birds Of Prey” 
  6. Or in addition to that, if you want to see showtime for it, say “Alexa, show me showtime for Birds Of Prey”.
  7. To get information on what the weather would be like at the weekend, say, “Alexa, show me the weather forecast for the weekend”.
  8. If you want to watch any particular youtube video, then say, “Alexa show me Anime videos on Youtube”. 
  9. To get a recipe, ask “Alexa, show me the recipe for quick food”.
  10. If you want to launch Uber, say, “Alexa, open Uber for me”

3. Fire TV Stick/Fire TV 

All echo devices work well with Fire TV. Here are the following Alexa commands you can speak to control what you want to see:

  1. At any time, if you want to control the TV, you can say, “Alexa, play, pause, stop, resume, rewind, fast forward’ using the Fire Stick. 
  2. If there is a particular movie that you’d like to search, then say, “Alexa, show me [Title of the movie]”. Or you can also say, “Alexa, find [Title of the movie]”.
  3. To search for a movie when you only know the name of the actor, say, “Alexa, find movies with [actor’s name]”. 
  4. If there is a certain application in Fire Tv that you’d like to open, then say, “Alexa, open [Name of the App]”
  5. To get back to the main home page, say, “Alexa, return to Home”
  6. If you watch to switch off the TV, say, “Alexa, switch off the Fire TV”. 
  7. In the middle fo a movie, if you wish to switch to another channel, say, “Alexa, switch to [name of the channel] on Fire TV”.
  8. Or maybe now you want to play games instead of watching a movie. Then say, “Alexa, switch to PlayStation on Fire TV”. 

4. Controlling Media 

  1. To make changes in the audio settings, say, “Alexa, set the pitch too high” or, “Set the bass to 8”. 
  2. If you want to listen to music, say, “Alexa, play music”. 
  3. Or if you’d like music to play on other devices for Alexa, then say, “Alexa, play in the drawing-room”.
  4. If you want to play the music of a certain artist, say, “Alexa, play music by [Artist’s name]”. 
  5. It could be that you only know a few lyrics of a song and not the name of it. Then say, “Alexa, play the music that goes like [the lyrics you know]”.
  6. To play an album of an artist, say” Alexa plays the [Album name] by [Artist’s name]”.
  7. If you are not sure about any particular song but you know the theme then say, “Alexa, play progressive rock music”. 
  8. You can make Alexa play a song of the day by saying, “Alexa, can you play the song of the day for me?”.
  9. Or, there is a Spotify playlist that you want to listen to, say “Alexa, play [name of the playlist] in Spotify]. 
  10. To play music from Pandora, say, “Alexa, play [name of the artist] on Pandora”. 
  11. If you are in the mood to listen to a radio station, simply say, “Alexa, play [name fo the radio station] on TuneIn ”.
  12. Maybe you’re in the mood to listen to a bedtime story. Then say, “Alexa, can you read me a bedtime story”
  13. Or maybe you’d like to hear a story from a Kindle book. Then say, “Alexa, read me [name of the book] in Kindle”
  14. If you want to know the information about the song that is currently playing, ask “Alexa, what is playing?”.
  15. To control the music options, say “Alexa, play”. Or you can say “Alexa, next”. 
  16. Maybe you want to make changes to the playback option on another device, then say, “Alexa, stop in the hall room”. 
  17. If you liked a song and want to listen to it again, then say, “Alexa, restart music” or “Alexa, restart”. 
  18. Want to create a playlist in your amazon music account? Say, “Alexa, create [name of the playlist]”. 
  19. To set an alarm for every day with music, say, “Alexa wake up every day with music”. 

5. Time & Date Alexa Commands

  1. To set a normal alarm, say, “Alexa, set an alarm at 6 am”. Or you can say, “Alexa, wake up in the morning”. 
  2. Or if you’d like to wake up to a music alarm then say, “Alexa, wake me up to [name of the song] at 6 am”. Or say, “Alexa, wake me up to Linkin Park at 6 am”.
  3. To create a repeating alarm, “Alexa, make an alarm at 7 am for weekdays”. 
  4. If you want to make a timer, say “Alexa, set a timer for 10 minutes”.
  5. To make more than one timer, say, “Alexa, set a second timer for 10 minutes”. 
  6. If you’d like to cancel the timer that you’ve already set, say, “Alexa, Cancel the timer”. 
  7. To know about what time it is, say, “Alexa, what time is it?”
  8. If you’d like to cancel an alarm, say, “Alexa, cancel the alarm for 6 am”. 
  9. To know about a holiday date for the current year, say, “Alexa, when is [name of the holiday] this year?”. 
  10. If you’d like to snooze an alarm, then say, “Alexa, snooze”. 

6. Calls & Messages Alexa Commands

  1. To make a call to another user of Echo, say, “Alexa, call [name of the user]”.
  2. If you’d like to receive a call then say, “Alexa, answer the call”.
  3. To hang up call, say, “Alexa, hang up the call”. 
  4. If you’re too lazy to read messages, simply let Alexa do it for you. Say, “Alexa, play messages”. 
  5. You can also make Alexa send any kind of message to a different user of the Echo. Just say, “Alexa, send John a message”. 
  6. If you want to make a broadcast announcement, say, “Alexa, announce its lunchtime”. Or you can say, “Alexa, tell everyone good morning”. 

7. Purchasing Items Amazon Alexa Commands

  1. If you want to order some of what you’ve recently purchased, then say, “Alexa, buy more Shampoos” Or you can say, “Alexa, reorder shampoos”. 
  2. To track the orders you’ve bought from Amazon, say, “Alexa, track my order”. 
  3. If you’d like to purchase an Alexa device, say, “Alexa, order an Echo/Tap/Echo Dot”.
  4. To make an addition to the shopping cart, say, “Add two perfumes to my cart”.
  5. To book yourself a cab, say, “Alexa, book me an Uber Ride”.
  6. Suppose to like an album while discovering it and you want to buy it, then say, “Alexa, but this album”.
  7. If you want to discover new music then say, “Alexa, find me a piece of new music by [name of the artist]”. 
  8. Maybe you cannot decide which phone to buy. Then ask Alexa to recommend a good smartphone. Just say, “Alexa, can you recommend a great mobile device?”. 

8. Notifications Commands

To let Alexa remind you of notifications, simply launch the Alexa application and then go to the option called “Settings”. Then go to the option called “Notifications”. From there you can go for the option called “Shopping Notifications”.

Now Alexa will light up in yellow if you receive notifications.

  1. There is always a possibility to lose track or miss notifications. So, if you’d like to read the messages that you may have skipped then, say, “Alexa, have I missed anything?”. 
  2. If you are bored with one notification, you can try navigating through notifications. Simply say, “Alexa, Next”. 
  3. Or, if you did not hear the previous notification clearly, then you can try to say, “Alexa, the previous notification”. 
  4. If you want to get rid of notifications, then say, “Alexa, remove all my notifications”. 

The commands do not need to be too specific as Alexa understands the keyphrases. However, speaking the commands with clarity would ensure a correct response from Alexa. 

9. To-do Notes & Shopping List

  1. You can assign Alexa to enter things in your to-do list, “Alexa, remind me to book a cab this evening”.
  2. To make a new item, say, “Alexa, make a to-do”.
  3. If you want to know what events are upcoming in the calendar then say, “Alexa, what’s in the calendar for tomorrow?”
  4. To add a specific event in the calendar, simply say, “Alexa, add [name of thevent] to my calendar for [date of the event].
  5. If you’d like to shift the date of an event to a different date, then say, “Alexa, shift my meeting from 12:00 to 2 pm”.
  6. To make a list of shopping items, say, “Alexa, add bread to my shopping list”. 
  7. It could be that you lost track of items that you added to the shopping lits. Simply ask “Alexa, can you tell me the list of things I’ve added to the shopping list”
  8. To donate an amount of money to any charity, then say, “Alexa, donate, [amount of money] to the XYZ Organization”.

10. News & Weather Commands

  1. If you want to check updates on Flash Briefing, then, say, “Alexa, check Flash Briefing”.
  2. To make the addition of music to Flash Briefing, then say, “Alexa, enable to Music”. 
  3. If you want to know what’s the latest trending news of headlines for the say, then say, “Alexa, tell me the news headlines for today”
  1. To geta report on current weather information, say, “Alexa, tell me the weather report status for today”.
  2. And, to get information on what’s the scene with traffic, then say, “Alexa, what’s the traffic like?”. Or you can also say, “Alexa, what’s my commute like?”. 

11. Entertainment Command

  1. To know more about what movies are currently showing in the nearby theatres, say, “Alexa, what movies are playing in the nearby theatre?”.
  2. If you want to know some details about any movie, then say, “Alexa, tell me more about [title of the movie]”.
  3. To get some cool quotes from a specific movie, say, “Alexa, tell me a quote from [title of the movie]”.
  4. If you want to know the details of a movie’s IMDb rating, then say,” Alexa, what’s the IMDb rating for [title of the movie]?”.
  5. Maybe you liked an actor and want to know the name of the actor. Then say, “Alexa, can you tell me who the lead actor is in [title of the movie]?”. 
  6. Or, maybe you want to know more about the actor, for instance, his work. Then say, “Alexa, what are the movies played by [name of the actor]?”. 
  7. If you liked a particular song from the movie then say, “Alexa, who is the singer of [name of the song]?”. 
  8. You can also get to know the names of the band members. Say, “Alexa, who are the members of [name of the band]”?. 
  9. To retrieve information about any particular album, then say, “Alexa, give me information on [name of the album]”.
  10. If you want to listen to some popular songs from a particular artist, then say, “Alexa, play some popular songs by [name of the artist]”.
  11. To find a particular song, say “Alexa, find [name of the song”. 

12. Food & Business Commands

  1. Try getting yourself a recipe from Alexa. Just say, “Alexa, get me a recipe for baking a chocolate cake”.
  2. Maybe you’d like to try some food in a nearby restaurant. Say, “Alexa, is there any coffee shop nearby me?”. Or you can also say, “What is the nearest restaurant for having coffee?”.
  3. Or maybe you don’t know what time they close. So, to get information on working hours, say, “Alexa, what time does [name of the restaurant] close?”. 
  4. To get the phone number of a business firm, say, “Alexa, get me the number for [name of the business]”. 

13. Math Commands

  1. To make any Mathematical conversion, say “Alexa, convert [unit] into [unit 2]”.
  2. Similarly, to make another kind of conversion, say, “Alexa, how many units are in 4[units]?”.
  3. For simple addition, ask, “Alexa, what is the addition of 18+67?”.
  4. Similarly, for division, ask, “Alexa, what’s 7 divided by 3?”.
  5. Now, to solve complex mathematics, say, “Alexa, what is the factorial of 9?”.

14. To Settle Scores

  1. To make Alexa, flip a coin, say, “Alexa, flip a coin for me”.
  2. Make Alexa pick a number. Just say, “Alexa, pick any number ranging between 10 and 20”.

15. Commands For Spellings & Definitions

  1. To know a particular definition of a word, ask, “Alexa, what’ the definition of [name of the word]”.
  2. To make Alexa spell a word, say, “Alexa, spell [name of the word]”.

16. Sports Commands

  1. If you missed a game then you can ask Alexa to check the results. Say, “Alexa, can you tell me the score of [name of the team] game?”.
  2. To know which team won, ask, “Alexa, which team won the game?”
  3. And, if you want to know the timing of the next game, ask, “Alexa, when is the next game scheduled?”
  4. And to get updates of a live game, ask, “Alexa give me live updates on [team] game”.
  5. If you want information on league standings, then say, “Alexa, what are the MLB standings?”.

17. Voice cast Commands

  1. If you are listening to a current song and you’d like to send it to the Fire Tablet, then say, “Alexa, send the current song to my Fire Tablet”. 
  2. Or if you want to send it to a different profile, then say, “Alexa, show this on [name of the different tablet]”.

18. Smart Home Commands

  1. For smart home appliances, you can make Alexa switch the lights on and off. Just say, “Alexa, can you turn the lights on”. 
  2. You can also ask Alexa to dim the lights. Say, “Alexa, lower the light intensity”. 
  3. To change the color of the lights in a particular room, say, “Alexa, change the color of the light in the bedroom”. 
  4. Let Alexa shut the doors. Say, “Alexa, shut the garage doors”.
  5. To use IFFF recipes, say, “Alexa, trigger, IFFF recipes].
  6. If you want to activate a scene, say, “Alexa, turn on bedtime”.
  7. To control the TV using the Harmony Hub, say, “Turn the TV on”.
  8. You can also let Alexa be alert and guard the house when you leave. Just say, “Alexa, I’m leaving”. 

19. Bluetooth Commands

  1. To make a pair with a Bluetooth device, “Alexa, pair”. Or you can say, “Alexa, Bluetooth”. 
  2. If you want to connect to a Bluetooth device, say, “Alexa, connect to my phone”. 
  3. To disconnect from a Bluetooth device, simply say, “Alexa, disconnect my phone”. 

20.  User Profile Commands

  1. To make a switch in profiles, say, “Alexa, switch accounts”. 
  2. If you’d like to know which account is active, Alexa, check which profile is active?”.

21. Skills Commands

Skills are known to be third-party applications that work with Alexa. Additionally, you can make Alexa play any game or do something.

  1. If you want to find some kid skills, you can ask, “Alexa, what kids skills do you have?”
  2. If you’d like to turn off a skill, say, “Alexa, disable Domino’s”. 

22. Search Commands

  1. If you are in the middle of something important and would like to refer to Wikipedia, say, “Alexa, Wikipedia : [Subject]”. 
  2. Along with that, if you’d like to know about the subject on Wikipedia, say, “Alexa, tell me more”.
  3. You can also ask Alexa to read your general information. Ask, “Alexa, tell me what’s the height of Eiffel Tower?”.
  4. If you like to ask Alexa to answer a question from Quora, say, “Alexa, ask Quora, what is the boiling point for metals?”. 
  5. Get a quote from Game of thrones from Alexa. Say, “Alexa, give me a cool quote from game Of Thrones.”.

23. Holiday Commands 

  1. If you want to know which holiday is upcoming, say, “Alexa, which holiday is coming up?”.
  2. It could be that you don’t know about a certain holiday. In that case, ask, “Why do we celebrate[name of the holiday]?”.
  3. Get to know general information. Ask, ‘Alexa, what’s the height of Mount Fuji?”. 

24. Easter Eggs

Alexa’s database has full of easter egg jokes. So, if you’re in the mood, you can have the following interactions with Alexa:

  1. For a mild joke say,  “Alexa, can you give me an Easter Egg?”.
  2. If you’d like to wish Alexa good morning then say “Alexa, Good Morning”. 
  3. To hear some jokes from Alexa, say, Alexa, can you tell me a joke?”.
  4. Another great joke by Alexa is ”Alexa, Tea. Earl Grey. Hot”.
  5. To know what Alexa’s purpose is, say, “Alexa, what is your quest?”. 
  6. If you want to know what the first rule of fight club is, say, “Alexa, what is the first rule of Fight Club?”. 
  7. Also, with a touch of humor, “Alexa, this is a dead parrot”. 
  8. To know about some plans, say, “Alexa, what’s your cunning plan?”.

Finally… 

Now that you are aware of Alexa’s capabilities, get started with her!