How to SMS Amazon Alexa from your iPhone

Amazon recently started testing a new feature on the iPhone that lets you text Alexa instead of talking to Alexa. You can use it to ask questions, order products from Amazon, call people, and more.

This is useful if you are unable to speak or just don’t want to, like when you’re in bed next to a sleeping partner, but still want to use Alexa to search for something.

You can already interact with Apple’s Siri and Google Assistant this way. But if you prefer Alexa, this is a new way to interact with her.

• Download the Amazon Alexa app from the App Store.
• Open the Amazon Alexa app on your iPhone.
• Tap the keyboard icon at the top left of the screen.
• Enter your question and press send.

Alexa will respond and you can have a conversation.

You can ask simple questions, such as “How tall is the Empire State Building?” or ask Alexa to call people by typing “Call Steve”, for example. You can also add items to your to-do list and control smart gadgets around your home.

You might notice a message that says, “By the way, typing with me is part of a public preview, so I still get it!” This means that new features can be added later.

I would like to see more visual content, like pictures of the weather forecast when I ask for the weather or different items that I can buy when I ask for something. These are features already available on other displays with Alexa, like Amazon’s Echo Show products.