- Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said that the Alexa smart assistant was kept "very busy" over the holidays.
- There's a lot you can do with Alexa to keep her busy and working for you, beside the obvious. Here are 5 ideas.
As Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said last week during the company's fourth quater earnings: "Alexa was very busy during her holiday season."
She has also been busy since then too, as the Echo Dot smart speaker was the #1 most sold product on Amazon in all of 2018.
With 80,000 Alexa skills (a skill is the Alexa equivalent of a smartphone app), there is so much you can do with her.
Here are 5 ideas:
1. Whisper to Alexa when you don’t want to wake someone
Why? So you don’t wake up the [insert husband / wife / friend / roommate / baby / cat / you get the point]. It’s also pretty cool that Alexa can whisper.
How? Say anything to Alexa in a whisper like “Alexa, set alarm for 6:30am,” and she will whisper back at a lower volume.
Set-up (less than 30 seconds): Enable whispered responses by opening your Alexa app, tapping the hamburger icon in the upper left corner > Settings > Alexa Account > Alexa Voice Responses and toggle “Whispered Responses” on.
Pro Tip: While you don’t have to be right next to your Echo smart speaker for Alexa to understand your whispered commands, if you have any background noise or you’re really far away (a distance where you’d normally be shouting a command so she could hear you), Alexa probably won’t understand you.
2. Turn your regular lights into smart lights with a smart plug
Why? Because turning lights on and off with your voice is magical. And setting up an Alexa smart plug with your current lights is so much easier than setting up smart lights. The smart plug is essentially a voice-activated on/off switch that you control by talking to Alexa.
How?“Alexa, turn on living room light”
Set-up (easy): The Amazon Smart Plug (which is normally $25 but currently on sale for $15) is the easiest smart plug to set up (you pretty much just have to plug it in and open the Alexa app), but there are some cheaper options that also work with Alexa from Gosund, Teckin, Etekcity and others.
Pro Tip: The one downside of a smart plug versus smart lights is that, since it’s really just a smart on/off switch, you miss out on the ability to set different lighting scenes like dimming your lights (although there is a simple (partial) workaround to dim your lights with an Alexa smart plug).
3. Upgrade your wake-up routine with lights and music
Why? Imagine a world in which you can wake up peacefully as your lights gradually come on to coax you out of bed while your favorite morning music plays softly. Once you live in that world, you’ll never want to go back.
How? If you set up an Alexa wake-up routine that kicks off at a certain time, all you have to do is sit back and let it happen. Here is my wake-up routine…
- 6:35am: Alexa turns on my bedroom smart lights dimmed at the lowest level
- 6:40am: She turns them on slightly brighter
- 6:45am: Alexa plays my Otis Redding Pandora station — this usually gets me up out of bed
- 7am: The lights come on at full brightness — so if I'm not up, I now have no choice but to get up
This is ten times better than waking up to a loud beeping alarm clock and hitting the snooze button, which is how I used to get up. It also means I no longer have to sleep with my phone on my night table for a dependable alarm clock.
Set-up (it’s a lot easier than you might think): Open your Alexa app, tap the hamburger icon in the upper left corner > Routines and tap the + icon in the upper right corner. This will take you to the “New Routine” tab where you can follow these instructions on how to set up Alexa routines to choose a trigger (could be a specific time or a voice command like “Alexa, good morning”) and the things you want to happen in response to the trigger (could be the lights coming on, music playing, weather and traffic updates or even Alexa telling you a joke).
Pro Tip: I also have a routine that turns the bedroom lights off at 9am. I love that I no longer have to remember to turn the lights off when I leave the house because Alexa just does it for me.
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