Amazon Alexa is a very popular, very complete and very easy to use voice assistant. But how does it work? How to take advantage of this? We tell you everything.
It was in 2011 that the first voice assistants appeared on smartphones. Today they have become much more democratic, they are present almost everywhere in our lives, in our homes, but also in our cars, in our headphones and headphones and others. Today, more than 20 million French people use Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant or Apple Siri. And for them, a voice assistant improves everyday life. The article below focuses on the solution offered by American retail giant Amazon.
What is Alexa?
Alexa is one of the first voice assistants to go beyond smartphones. Created by Amazon, it offers a lot of features and skills while remaining very easy to use. Best of all, it’s scalable and highly responsive.
How to take full advantage of Alexa
The easiest way to use Alexa daily is to use it through a connected speaker. At this point, you are spoiled for choice. The Amazon Echo range – Dot or Show – is already extensive, but there are also many third-party products that integrate Amazon Alexa.
Once connected, the speaker can be placed anywhere in your home. However, an open space, about 20 cm away from the wall and without any obstructions, is preferable for the best sound quality. Depending on which room it’s in, you won’t necessarily use it in the same way. This means that several are often placed in different rooms.
The speaker is configured through the Alexa app or directly through the screen – if there is one. And he must have internet access to work.
App download and sign in
To get started, you need to download the Alexa app from Google Play or the App Store, depending on your smartphone, and install it. Sign in to your Amazon account or create one if needed. You will need to enter the country you live in.
Device setup
To set up your Echo device, go to the Devices tab, click the + in the top right corner, and select Amazon Echo. Select your device type – Echo Dot, Echo Plus, etc. – and follow the instructions until you find the device and add it to your account.
How to use Alexa
Once the speaker is connected to Wi-Fi and set up, just say “Alexa”followed by your request. You can change the “Alexa”keyword to “Amazon”or “Echo”if you like. The point of a voice assistant is to be smart, up to a certain point and respond to your requests.
To do this, Alexa has built-in features and “skills,”features that you can activate on demand. To install them, you need to find them on amazon.fr or directly on the Alexa app. Then launch them by saying “Alexa, [skill name]”. There are some for all needs, some are quite simple, others are very complex.
What can you do with Amazon Alexa?
After all, that’s the whole point. And the answer is simple: everything. Or almost. With the native features, skills and capabilities offered to developers, nothing can get in the way of voice assistants.
There are very simple functions to manage the speaker itself, get answers to a wide variety of topics, start searches, control music, etc. But you can also affect other connected devices, control connected objects in your home, and trigger a range of complex actions. Your imagination is the only limit. And Amazon doesn’t hesitate to go delusional, so to speak, by considering having its assistant speak in the voice of your deceased loved ones.
Namely, however, all the commands you say after the keyword are recorded in your history to improve the experience and personalize it even more. If you want to delete these entries, go to “Settings”, then “Alexa and your personal information”.