Alexa is one of the best virtual helpers out there. Amazon has been busy improving its personal assistant since the launch day, expanding its usefulness just beyond being able to show sports scores or weather forecasts. Amazon Echo is now a bigger deal than you expect, allowing you to do a lot more things.
Amazon Alexa comes pre-loaded with every Echo speaker, offering you a handy tool to control your home, play music playback, or even locate your misplaced phone. In reality, there are a lot of skills Amazon Alexa can perform you may not know about. With that in mind, we are here to help.
In the section below, we have put together the best Amazon Echo Alexa skills, so you can get the most out of your smart speaker. For some background, the Amazon Echo ranks among the most used smart speakers on the market. Amazon and Google now dominate the smart speaker market, with more than 80 percent market share. Last year, Apple marked its first steps in the market with the introduction of the HomePod.
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Music and radio
One of the best things when it comes to Amazon Alexa lies in the ability to control music and radio playback. In reality, you can ask Alexa to play your favorite music tracks or radio stations. This comes in handy as it eliminates the need to use a third-party app.
The coolest part is that you can change your default music service thanks to Alexa’s support for third-party apps. In fact, Amazon has its own music service that comes preloaded in the Alexa app, but it lacks some important features.
To select a new music service, you first need to open the Alexa app on your smartphone, then tap Settings, and select Music and Media. Now just simply select a third-party music service and set it as your default. Alexa also includes support for a wide range of radio stations out there. All you need to do is to ask for your favorite station and it will start playing.
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Television streaming
Amazon has been improving its virtual helper in recent years. Amazon is finally allowing users to control their Fire TV devices with their Amazon Echo. That means that you are able to open a streaming app or play your content using your personal assistant.
In reality, the functionality is not something new out there as it has been part of Google Assistant for a while. The best part is that you can quickly open specific content from your favorite artists. To do this, you simply search for an artist or actor, and Alexa will playing your content.
Last year, Amazon expanded Alexa support to Sony TVs, allowing users to turn on/off their TVs, switch channels, and control volume using their Amazon Echo smart speaker.
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Control your music
Amazon Echo supports a wide range of third-party apps and services. If you are a big fan of music, then you can connect your smart speaker to an external Bluetooth speaker and then play your music through it. To do this, open the Alexa app on your smartphone, select Settings and follow the instructions to complete the setup.
Amazon has been busy expanding Alexa to more devices out there. If you now own a Sonos device, then you can control it using your smart speaker. To do this, you need to install the Sonos skill in the Alexa app and follow the instructions to complete the task.
Once you are done, you can control your music playback using your voice command. In fact, you can switch songs across your house without even leaving your room.
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Alarms and reminders
Like any other smart speaker out there, you can use your smart speaker to set alarms or reminders, so you won’t miss any important notifications. Specifically, you can ask Alexa to set your alarms or reminders using your voice commands.
Besides, you can create a to-do list with Alexa. For example, you can create a shopping list and add more items to it. The coolest part is that Alexa now supports Todoist, meaning that you can sync your to-do lists with the Todoist app and access them across all devices.
To do this, you first need to sign up for your Todoist account in the Alexa app on your phone, then add items to your list using your voice command.
Alexa is getting smarter and better every year. Amazon has been adding new skills to its virtual helper on a semi-regular basis in an attempt to offer a better user experience. We are looking forward to seeing more features coming in Alexa in the future.
Also read: The best Fitbit features you may not know about
Got any questions? Let us know in the comments below.
