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By now, you’ve probably gotten the hang of incorporating Alexa into your life with basic music, weather, and traffic commands. You may even be using Alexa to control your smart lights, smart plugs, and smart locks. But it’s still early days for this semi-smart personal assistant and these five commands and features may have you seeing your little blue rings in a whole new light.
1. Listen to Free Kindle and Library Books
Want to listen to that new book you’ve been meaning to read on your Alexa-enabled device? Over 11,000 libraries in the United States allow you to borrow Kindle books for free. Find out if your library is participating here. Once you’ve borrowed a book, you’ll have the opportunity to send to a Kindle device. To listen to Kindle books on your Alexa-enable devices, use the following commands:
- “Alexa, play the 9title)Kindle book.”
- “Alexa, pause / stop/ resume.”
- “Alexa, skip back / skip ahead.”
- “Alexa, volume (1-10)”
- “Alexa, open my Kindle books.”
- “Alexa, show me my Kindle books.”
2. Control Alexa Devices in Other Rooms
If you have more than one Alexa-enabled device, you can direct the device in one room to play music on a device in another room. For example, if you’re in the bedroom, you can use your bedroom’s Echo Show 5 to say, “Alexa, play music to cook to on the Kitchen Echo.” Music will begin playing on the Alexa device labeled “Kitchen Echo.”
3. Save Your Sanity, Repeat Yourself Less
If you missed Alexa’s response to an inquiry, there’s no need to ask again, simply say, “Alexa, repeat that.”
4. Alexa’s Second Act: Touch Phone
If you use Alexa to make calls, you can navigate through automated messaging systems, too. For example, if you hear, “For English, press one, For Spanish press two.” Say, “Alexa, press (number)” and you’ll be routed to the correct department.
5. Make Certain Alexa Heard You the First Time
Want to ensure your Echo device heard your request? You can make your device emit a short sound at the start or end of a command. To do this, open your Alexa app and tap the three lines on the top left. Tap Settings, Device Settings, select an Echo device, tap “Sounds” and toggle the “Start of a Request” or “End of a Request” options under “Request Sounds.”
Ready for more Alexa and smart home insight? Join our Facebook community for the (unofficially) best tips, tricks, and tutorials.
Interested in how Alexa can help in an emergency situation? Read on.
