The number of tasks that Alexa can accomplish is clearly more than we can list in this article, so be sure to check out our roundup of the best Alexa skills of 2023. Upon review from Amazon, you can even publish your own skills in the Amazon Skills Store for other people to use on their Alexa devices. Amazon calls these “skills,” and you can even create your own skills through Amazon Blueprints. The list of commands Alexa can understand seems to grow on a daily basis. What can Alexa do? Image used with permission by copyright holder Here is a list of the best smart home devices compatible with Alexa. And now that many Echo devices support Matter, it can interact with a wide variety of smart home gadgets. You can also use the voice assistant to build your smart home piecemeal, as Alexa can pair with hubless devices such as WeMo switches and Nest thermostats. Someone even programmed Alexa to work with a Big Mouth Billy Bass.Īlexa has also become the center of many smart-home systems, including Wink, SmartThings, and the Logitech Harmony. Devices like the Fire TV are also compatible with Alexa, as are some third-party devices such as the Sonos One. This typically means an Amazon device, such as an Echo, Echo Dot, or Echo Show, but this cloud-based personal voice assistant has also been integrated into the Echo Auto, and with some third-party systems. In order to use Alexa, you’ll need a device that integrates voice technology. Image used with permission by copyright holder And so, a combination of those two things allowed us to kind of narrow in on Alexa.” Where can I use Alexa? The fourth-gen Amazon Echo is one of four available Sidewalk Bridges. “If any of you have Echoes, you know that it only wakes up when it hears the word ‘Alexa,’ and the phonics of that word and how that word is parsed, and the fact that it has a hard consonant with the ‘X’ in it, is important in making sure that it wakes up only when it’s asked for. But there’s computer science behind it, too,” Limp said. “We did go through a number of names and the name is important as much for the personality that it creates around the persona than is this computer-based voice computer in the cloud. Since this service is voice-activated, Amazon wanted to choose a name that wouldn’t get confused with other words that could accidentally awaken the device: More practically, the service was named Alexa because it contains the uncommon “X” sound. Alexa is always learning but, in theory, it should be a seamless source of information. Amazon is attempting to do the same thing. First, the name “Alexa” harks back to the Library of Alexandria, which attempted to collect all of the world’s knowledge. But why? According to David Limp, the Amazon executive who oversaw the development of the service, the name “Alexa” was chosen for a few reasons. Google Home has the Google Assistant, which comes alive when you say “OK, Google.” Amazon has Alexa. Why Alexa? Image used with permission by copyright holderĪpple has Siri. While Alexa is the official name for Amazon’s voice assistant, you can change this wake word to “Amazon,” “Computer,” or “Echo.” That’s a useful feature, especially if your name or your partner’s or roommate’s name happens to be Alexa or something that sounds similar. “Alexa is always getting smarter with new capabilities through machine learning,” Amazon’s Developer site reads. That’s why you’re starting to see Alexa in headphones and other devices. The service can be used to voice-enable any connected device that has a microphone and speaker. Amazon’s AVS is an intelligent voice recognition and natural language understanding service. For most devices, you just have to say the wake word to get a response.Īccording to Amazon’s Developer site, the Alexa Voice Service (AVS) lives in the cloud. “Alexa” is simply the “wake word” that alerts the service to start listening to your voice. Amazon has designed the Alexa Voice Service (AVS) to mimic real conversations, but you’re actually using intuitive voice commands to get this service to perform specific tasks. The best smart plugs of 2023: What is a smart plug, and which do I need?īut really, what exactly is Alexa? When you ask Alexa a question, what you’re doing is communicating with a cloud-based service. Amazon’s Echo family expands with an on-wall hub, smart glasses, and more
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