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Alexa is no longer 'new'. The smart technology revolution is in full swing and Amazon Echo is at the heart of it. According to Edison Research, nearly 40 million people have voice-activated loudspeakers, or about one in six adults in the United States.
If you want to use the speaker system itself, thousands of sophisticated skills can enhance your Alexa experience.
Automate actions with "routines". In real life, a human assistant does not require separate requests. The assistants already know your morning routine and know what you need (the best ones do) without you having to ask everything.
Alexa can now imitate this behavior thanks to its "routines" feature. For example, you can say "Alexa, I'm home!" And Alexa can welcome you, turn on the smart lights in your living room, read the daily news and read a specific music playlist. You can also say "Alexa, good evening" and she can answer "Sweet dreams", lock the door, set the thermostat to a fixed temperature, turn off all lights, then play binaural white noise to make you sleep.
To create a routine in the Alexa app, go to the menu and then tap routines. Press the plus sign (+) to start a new sequence. Select When this happens, then choose your trigger. The trigger can be a phrase, a schedule, or a motion sensor event. Then select Add Action to start building the routine. To conclude, choose the device from which you want to trigger the routine, and then tap Create.
Make announcements. Another feature that you can try with several Amazon Echos is to configure them as multiroom intercoms. With this feature, you can use your smart speakers to run an ad throughout your home, much like a school, airport, or cruise ship.
Amazon Echos also offers a feature called "Drop In". This feature allows you to instantly connect to all Echo gadgets in your home, hands free, without having to wait for anyone to pick up the call. Best of all, you can also connect remotely to the echoes of your friends and family.
To do this, open your Alexa app, go to Settings, then select the desired Echo device and press Drop In. Now select On or Only My Household to enable Drop In conversations. To call an echo, just say "Alexa, appointments "followed by the name of the echo you want to call.
Hands-free phone calls. Just like your car's Bluetooth speaker, you can use Alexa to make hands-free phone calls. Just link your mobile number to your echo and you can call anyone from your contact list.
To turn on Alexa calls, you need an Amazon account, your mobile phone number, and the Alexa app on your phone. Just open the Alexa app, go to the Conversations tab (in the bottom menu, a bubble icon), and follow the on-screen instructions to check and link your phone number. mobile phone.
Translate languages. For decades, futurists have dreamed of a universal translator. The idea of talking to a computer and receiving an instant transcript in English has always seemed to be a distant dream. But Echo can now do just that, which is a paradigm shift for meetings, exchange students and Couchsurfing hosts.
Echo requires a skill called Translated to interpret one language to another. After activating this skill, you can say "Alexa, open Translated," and then ask how to speak English words and phrases in a specific language. The translated skill currently supports more than 35 languages.
Control your TV. Like Apple and Google, Amazon is smart to develop networks on its many devices. One of the best examples is Amazon's Fire TV, which you can remotely control by talking to your Echo.
To do this, open your Alexa app, and select Music, Video, and Books. Select Fire TV, then link your Alexa device, then follow the on-screen instructions to select the devices you want to link. To confirm the link, tap Pair devices. If you have only one Fire TV account registered on your Amazon account, it will be automatically connected to your Echo.
To use your voice as a remote control, say "Alexa," followed by a playback command such as "pause," "fast forward," or "skip an episode." You can also ask Alexa to search for a specific video and open other apps on your smart TV.
Multiroom audio. If you have multiple echoes in your home (including Echo Dot and Show), you can set them up to play the same music simultaneously, much as if you had a centralized speaker system in your house.
Go to Settings in the Alexa app, scroll down until you find audio groups, and select Multi-Room Music. Here you will see all your Smart Home groups. Select Add a group, then Amazon Multi-Room Music Group. Select a name for your new group, and add the Echo devices that you want to include.
Listen to Kim Komando's show from 1 to 4 pm Sundays on KRMG am740 or fm102.3. Read his columns or get his newsletters at komando.com.
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