The AAmazon virtual assistant It is permeating among many users, so it is possible that this Christmas more than one has received one of Amazon's smart devices with the integrated assistant. Still don't know how to take advantage of this virtual butler? Well, we leave you with a great list of questions and sections so that you can get the maximum performance to Alexa.
A very nice, funny… and educated assistant
If you are one of those who finds it difficult to break the ice when it comes to starting a conversation, don't worry, since Alexa loves to drop some joke or curious information unexpectedly. To do this you only have to greet him with a “Alexa, good morning”, “Alexa, good afternoon” o “Alexa, good night”.
If you want to laugh for a while you can ask him why jokes, riddles or funny things:
Alexa, tell me a joke
Alexa, tell me a riddle
Alexa, are we in the Matrix?
Alexa, tell me a Chiquito joke
Alexa, Buzz Lightyear
Alexa, when is your birthday?
Alexa, who is your father?
Alexa, self destruct
Alexa, talk like Yoda
Alexa, speak Klingon
Although if you prefer, he can offer you more useful information:
Alexa, tell me a story
Alexa, sing a song
Alexa, recite me a poem
Alexa, who is Google/Siri?
Alexa, what saint is celebrated today?
Alexa, who is Cristiano Ronaldo?
Alexa, how old is the president of the government?
Alexa, who's birthday is today?
control your music
With Alexa you will listen to more music than ever, and you only have to ask it. For this you have to have configured the services you have, and that is that you can use Amazon Music on Alexa, listen to Spotify with Alexa smoothly.
Alexa, put on some relaxing music
Alexa, play songs from the 90s
Alexa, play pop music
Alexa, play music by Camilo
And if you're listening to a song and you want know what it is, you just have to ask:
Alexa, what song is this?
You can also listen to the radio with the help of the many programs that are posted on the internet. Alexa uses the TuneIn service automatically, so you can listen to radio shows and podcasts just by asking.
Alexa, recommend a podcast
Alexa, play the Modern Life podcast
The basic commands in this section for control with the wizard will also be available.
Alexa, turn up/down the volume
Alexa, for playback
Alexa, play the next/previous song
Review the news of the day with Alexa
Your day can start with a quick review with the news in the morning, and for this you will only have to… yes, ask Alexa.
Alexa, what's the news today?
In Spain, by default it will show you the news from RTVE, but you can choose your favorite news service from a bunch of options from the Settings >> News section in the official Alexa app.
Although also, thanks to the Routines of the assistant that you can configure from this same application on your smartphone, you can make it perform several successive actions just by saying Alexa, good morning. The possibilities with the routines are endless, so we recommend that you take a look at it and try the different options it offers.
Make Alexa make your life easier in your day to day
Everything we've reviewed above are actions and requests that can be performed on the fly, and are nothing more than quick responses from the wizard to questions you ask. But what if the assistant anticipated you? For that you have to give him certain instructions. For example, we can set timers and reminders.
Alexa, for a 20-minute timer
Alexa, remind me to water the plants
Alexa, tell me my pending reminders
Alexa, clear all my reminders
Helps you make decisions
Who has not had doubts about choosing one thing or another? Those cases in which we resort to the "famous" coin with the heads or tails. Alexa will save you this step because she can do it for you with these simple commands.
Alexa, flip a coin. It will make the toss, with sound effects, and it will tell you if it is heads or tails.
Alexa, give me a random number from 1 to 100. You can choose the numerical range you need, whatever it is.
Manage calendars, alarms or notifications
There's nothing like having one organized schedule, and if you can add the events with your voice, all the better. To do this you will have to select your favorite service in the Alexa application (Settings, Calendar) and choose between Google, Microsoft or Apple services. Once you have your account with your calendar linked, it's time to give commands to Alexa.
Alexa, add an event on Friday at 10 p.m.
Alexa, tell me my notifications
Alexa, what do I have on my calendar?
Alexa, what do I have to do on Friday?
As for the alarms, you will be able to create them with the usual commands or, even, in a more natural way, interacting with the wizard. We will have the basic commands to postpone or delete alarms. Even, if we wish, we can customize the sound of this alarm with our favorite song.
Alexa, set an alarm for 4pm?
Alexa, wake me up tomorrow at 6
Alexa, wake me up at 6am with relaxing music
Alexa, wake me up at 6am to music by KAROL G
Alexa, turn off all alarms
Alexa, what alarms do I have?
From the Reminders section of the Alexa application you can easily create, edit and delete all those alarms and notices that we have programmed with our voice.
Create shopping lists with Alexa
Another of Alexa's tremendously useful features is being able to create a list shopping so that when we are in the supermarket we do not forget anything.
Alexa, add cupcakes to shopping list
Alexa, what do I have on my shopping list?
Alexa, create a shopping list with the name "Mercadona"
Alexa, add fried tomato to the "Mercadona" list
Alexa, what do I have on the "Mercadona" list?
If you want to see everything you have on the shopping list, you can ask it with the command above or enter the Lists section from the official app
Ask for the time or the weather
In addition to asking about these two aspects in the traditional way, you can ask more natural questions such as whether you should take the umbrella or the time in different countries.
Alexa, what's the weather like today?
Alexa, what time is it in the United States?
Alexa, do I have to get the umbrella?
Alexa, is it going to rain tomorrow?
Alexa, what will the weather be like tomorrow in Madrid?
Don't let Alexa bother you when you go to sleep
One of the latest functions that have come to the wizard is the whisper mode. This makes Alexa detect if you are speaking in a natural tone or, on the contrary, in a lower tone because you are in bed or simply because you do not want to disturb anyone near you.
To activate this mode you will only have to ask the assistant with the command Alexa, turn on whisper mode. From that moment, Alexa will be able to differentiate the volume of your query and, of course, will answer you in the same way.
Restaurants, shops and services near your location
If you correctly configure your location in the Alexa settings panel, you will be able to use the functions related to the search for shops, hours or traffic information.
Alexa, what movies are showing in the cinema?
Alexa, what Indian restaurant is around here?
Alexa, how's the traffic to the airport?
Alexa, when does the nearest supermarket open?
These are basically the essential pillars on which you can start to build a good relationship with your virtual assistant, but with Alexa you will be able to do many more, and increasingly complex things. We will tell you about that in the next tutorial, where you will be able to know how to light bulbs with alexa, make calls to other echo and even create routines for control multiple devices at once with Alexa.