After almost one year of living with my Amazon Echo, here are some tips I’ve found useful for getting the most out of your artificially intelligent roommate, Alexa.
Also, for the sake of clarity, “Echo” refers to the device while “Alexa” is the name of the software/virtual personal assistant.
1. Help Your Echo Recognize Your Voice Better With Voice Training
To get the most out of Alexa, make sure she’s familiar how you sound and the way you speak. This can be done through voice training in the Amazon Alexa app (iOS and Android). Just open the Menu, tap Settings, and go to Voice Training. It will ask you to read 25 phrases out loud as you normally would, and your Echo will listen and improve Alexa’s speech recognition capabilities.
2. Remember That Your Echo Makes Recordings Of Your Voice, Which Can Be Played On The Amazon Alexa app
It’s probably important to remember that whoever has access to the Alexa app linked to your Echo can listen to recordings of previous commands. If that freaks you out, you can easily turn voice listening off by pressing the mute button on top of your Echo (the microphone with the line through it).
You can also delete specific recordings from the app. Just open the Alexa app on the main screen, which will bring up your Alexa history. On the “card” you want to delete, tap More, then Remove.
3. You Can Customize Your News Briefing
Alexa will happily read you the news if you ask her. Just say, “Alexa, what’s new?” or “Alexa, read me the news” to hear the day’s top headlines.
You can customize your Flash Briefing by going to Settings, scrolling down to Flash Briefing, and tapping “Get more Flash Briefing Content.” This will bring up a whole new page where you can choose from a variety of content, from sports and entertainment news to NPR and BBC.
You can select multiple Flash Briefings and control the order that Alexa plays them by going back to the Flash Briefing page under Settings and tapping “Edit Order.”
4. If You Use Spotify A Lot, You Can It Your Default Music Player
Your Echo’s default music player is Prime Music, which has a much smaller library. I love Spotify and wanted to set it as my Echo’s music default right away. To do this, go to Menu, then Settings, and tap Music & Media. At the bottom of the page, there’s an option to choose the default music service, where you can select Spotify.
5. The Light Ring Can Mean A Whole Lot Of Things
Your Echo’s light ring is how it visually communicates its status to you. What does a white light mean? What about an oscillating violet light? Pulsing green light? You can find an explanation of those colors here.
6. You Echo Is Also A Great Bluetooth Speaker
You can use your Echo as a Bluetooth speaker by putting your device in Bluetooth paring mode, then saying, “Alexa, pair” or “Alexa, connect to iPhone.” I use my Echo as a bluetooth speaker very frequently, because it has trouble connecting to Spotify on its own at times. I’ll open Spotify on my phone and just have my Echo act as a speaker instead.
7. The Amazon Alexa App A Variety Of Cool “Skills” Your Echo Can Use
Skills are like apps. You can browse the Alexa app and enable a variety of different skills by going to the Menu and tapping on Skills. This will bring up a page where you can browse all of the things your Echo can potentially do, from Sleep and Relaxation sounds and 7-Minute Workout to Lyft and Domino’s Pizza.
8. You Can Change Your Echo’s Wake Word
The wake word is what your Echo listens for in order for it to know you’re asking it something. If you don’t want to call your Echo by Alexa (maybe you have someone named Alexa in your house), you can easily change the wake word by going to Settings, tapping on your Echo’s name, then tapping on Wake Word. You can choose from “Alexa,” “Amazon,” “Echo,” and “Computer.”
9. Location Is Key
Location is super important when it comes to getting the most out of your Echo. It’s ability to listen depends on where it is. It’s recommended that you keep your Echo in a central location, far away from walls. Don’t hide it behind other appliances or pieces of furniture.
10. Your Echo Knows A Lot, So Take Advantage Of It!
There are so many things you can ask Alexa. For example, you can ask Alexa to find restaurants and businesses for you. Make sure your location settings are correct by going to Settings, tapping on your device and inputting an address for Device location. You can ask Alexa things like “Alexa, what Mexican restaurants are nearby?” or “Where is the nearest grocery store?”. You can ask follow-up questions too, such as, “What’s their phone number?”, “How far is it?”, and “When do they close?”.
Once your location settings are correct, you can also ask Alexa questions about your daily commute. Go to Settings, then scroll until you see Traffic. From there, you can input your work addresses, and ask Alexa questions like “Alexa, how’s traffic” or “Alexa, what’s my commute?”.
