Personal assistants have always been around. Even in the oldest ages, where unfortunately slave people were forced to serve rich people, but this has changed. Now the assistants are virtual and like all technology, it advances by leaps and bounds to do more and more tasks. In this article we are going to see what Alexa is for.
This personal assistant now has many basic functions for our life but also other surprising ones that leave us stunned when we execute them. It also has other types of functions that are less useful but that show us the artificial intelligence of this technology, such as jokes or horror stories.
what is alexa
Alexa is an artificial intelligence system manufactured by the e-commerce giant, Amazon.. This assistant is not a robot that drives around the house to perform cleaning functions, but it does help you by facilitating certain functions without having to move from the sofa, if you like. Or even do things from outside your home, giving directions with your application.
These functions can be determined by voice. You can also choose to only listen to a specific tone of voice or several. To do this, you have to call her by saying “Alexa”. By saying that, we can see how the speaker reacts with a blue and green light with which it collects the information that you are going to give it next, such as: "Turn on the light in the living room."
What is Alexa for?
So, what is Alexa for? Well Alexa is used, for example, to turn on the light. In this way, if you have configured the light or other home appliances through connections, you can ask by voice command to do almost anything. Facilitating some more tedious tasks or tasks that we cannot perform by ourselves at that time. Or we don't want to.
Since sometimes, we are performing other functions and we cannot be aware of everything. That is why Alexa can be a good complement to remind us of things or do them for us. For example, ask to be reminded that at certain times we have to do something and Alexa herself will tell us at the right time.
Basic Alexa functions
If you are one of those who just bought Alexa because someone has recommended it to you, you probably do not know all the functions it has. And the normal thing is to start with the basic ones to get a performance from the first day of the tool. That is why it is normal to send them reminders or ask them to play specific music. More if you are subscribed to Prime Music, with which you can have unlimited music.
We are going to show a list of the basic functions that Alexa has and so you can play with it to know how far you can go at first:
- Alexa, remind me turn off the oven to the 15: 00
- Alexa, play u2
- Alexa, what's the weather like today
- Alexa, set the alarm clock to the 6: 40 in the morning
- Alexa, call mom and put the speaker
- Alexa, tell me the latest news of the day in Cordoba
These functions are the most common and for this you only need to have Alexa connected to a Wi-Fi network. With this you can start using Alexa, but not all the use of this technology ends there, so keep in mind that you are not exploiting it to the fullest. Perhaps these functions do not even work at 50 percent of what a virtual assistant like Alexa can benefit you.
Complex and amazing features
After those basic functions that we have shown, we can go to a next level when you control it. Sometimes Alexa seems to ignore us, but it's a mispronunciation or the wrong voice code you're sending her. The sentences we pronounce sometimes become too complex and it has a lot to do with how we express ourselves in our day to day.
Keep this in mind when you want to launch any of the functions that this device has. Given that the sentences should be short and direct and the pronunciation should not be so pronounced, since Alexa may not understand exactly what you mean, which will say: "Sorry, I did not understand you." Other amazing functions are the following:
- Alexa, turn on living room light: To perform this command, keep in mind that you have to have the light connected to the internet and configured with Alexa. In addition, you have to configure the name of that light, since each one will go by this code, such as "kitchen" or "living room".
- Activate the alarm at 16:00 p.m.: If you have an alarm at home and you leave, you do not need to be aware of whether you activate it or not. With Alexa you can ask her to turn it on or off at a certain time.
- Alexa, make shopping list: With this command you can make a shopping list and do it directly so that it arrives at home with Amazon. This way you will only have to use voice commands to buy something.
- Alexa, read the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows book: Alexa can act as an audiobook reader and can tell you stories.
- Alexa, tell me a joke or a horror story: With any of these commands, Alexa will tell you a short story or a quick joke like "fart sounds". These features are fun and can surprise your guests.
Set up the Amazon app
For all of these features to run, we need to set up the Amazon Echo app. This application will establish the voice commands that we will then execute by saying directly. For this we will have to download the application in our device and plug in our Amazon Echo device.
Once these first steps have been taken and we have entered our Amazon account, we will have to go to the application and click on "Add device". Your Amazon Echo device will appear in the list and click there to link. Once that is done, Alexa herself will ask you for some instructions to make the complete link and have your Alexa configured.