What is alexa

Narrate a Kindle book. Get movie showtimes or sports schedules. Order pizza and find nearby restaurants. Pay your bills with the Capital One app. Order pretty much anything online. Get pregnancy advice. Track your Amazon packages. Get long-form news updates soon to be in a newscaster voice. Have Alexa read your emails. Guide to smart light switches.

The best new shows to stream on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and more. Best Black Friday laptop deals Cheapest prices today. On the other hand, when using the Amazon Mobile Shopping app for smartphones or the Alexa Remote for Fire TV devices, you don't have to say Alexa before asking your question or ordering a task.

Instead, tap the microphone icon on a smartphone touchscreen or press the microphone button on an Alexa Voice Remote and start speaking. You can also adjust voice response speed. Say Alexa, speak slower or faster. To get a normal speech rate back, say Alexa, speak at normal speed. Alexa allows you to activate a Whisper Mode.

Amazon Alexa functions as your personal voice assistant for accessing information and controlling compatible devices. Alexa can answer questions, tell you traffic or weather information, play news reports, initiate phone calls, play music, manage your grocery list, purchase items from Amazon , and, on the Echo Show, display images and play video. You can extend the reach of Alexa further by taking advantage of Alexa Skills.

Alexa Skills provide interaction with third-party content and services. It also enhances your lifestyle by turning your Alexa-enabled device into a smart home hub. Examples of interaction with third-party content and services include ordering takeout food from a local restaurant, requesting an Uber ride, and playing a song from a specific streaming service, provided you enabled the designated skill for each of those options. In its role as a smart home hub, instead of accessing a control pad or using a handheld or app-based remote to control the functions of a specific device, you can tell Alexa, through a compatible Echo product, in plain English, to perform the task.

For example, you can tell Alexa to turn something on or off, adjust a thermostat, start a washing machine, raise or lower a video projection screen, turn a TV on or off, view security camera feeds, and more. This can only be done if control for those devices is added to the Alexa Skills database , and you enabled those skills. You can control Alexa with your smartphone when you're not home.

In addition to Alexa Skills, Amazon is in the process of providing the ability for several tasks to be grouped together using Alexa Routines. With Alexa Routines, instead of telling Alexa to perform a specific task using a single skill, you can customize Alexa to perform a series of related tasks with one voice command. In other words, instead of telling Alexa to turn off the lights, the TV, and lock your door with separate commands, you can say something like Alexa, good night.

Alexa takes that phrase as a cue to perform all three tasks as a routine. By the same token, when you wake up in the morning, say Alexa, good morning. If you set up the routine beforehand, Alexa turns on the lights, starts the coffee maker, provides you with the weather, and activates your daily briefing as one continuous routine. In addition to smartphones both Android and iOS , Alexa can be configured with and accessed on the following devices:.

Alternatively, you can use a skill to change Alexa's voice to a celebrity's voice , such as Samuel L. According to journalist and author Brad Stone who wrote the book "Amazon Unbound," a voice actor from Colorado named Nina Rolle provides the voice of Alexa.

Amazon has neither confirmed nor denied this. When you use Alexa Voice Recognition , Alexa can tailor responses to different users. Follow the prompts for Alexa to learn your device. Follow the prompts to complete the setup. Actively scan device characteristics for identification.

Use precise geolocation data. Select personalised content. Create a personalised content profile. Measure ad performance. Select basic ads.

Create a personalised ads profile. Select personalised ads. Apply market research to generate audience insights. What is Alexa? Want to know more about Amazon's virtual assistant?

Start here. Megan Wollerton , Andrew Gebhart. June 2, a. Let's find out. Related links What is Google Assistant?