Alexa is an AI that has been designed and introduced by Amazon to answer users’ queries and requests. It allows users to control devices, services, and applications using only their voice. Alexa is a personal assistant that can help you with anything from playing music to calculating your mortgage payments. In addition, users can ask it questions about the weather or inquire about nearby restaurants.
By default, Alexa has access to the most popular content on the internet – Wikipedia, but it will answer any question people have about any topic imaginable. Of course, the best skill Alexa users will need is the smart thermostat, aka Ecobee3 with Alexa built-in, so that you can manage your home’s temperature from anywhere in the world. Sounds interesting? Let’s see what this AI has to offer!
What is Alexa?
The Amazon Alexa is an intelligent personal assistant that you can install in your home. It has around 22,000 skills and is continually being updated with new features. The Amazon Echo is a portable device that syncs with the Alexa app on your phone or tablet. The voice assistant has impressive capabilities in terms of language processing, natural language understanding, understanding human input, speech recognition and synthesis, text to speech conversion, music streaming services, TV service integration.
With these capabilities in hand, they can answer complex questions for users just by talking to the device without setting up complicated apps or programming skillsets. Alexa has been around for over a decade now, but its popularity has risen since its launch in November 2014. Alexa has been named the second most popular personal assistant globally, a popular digital assistant after Google Assistant beating out its competitors Siri and Cortana.
How Does Alexa Work?
Alexa can be used to play music, make calls, send messages, answer questions, provide sports scores and schedules, control smart home devices (e.g., thermostat). It can also set alarms and timers, read audiobooks out loud to you, search the web for information on topics like weather forecasts or recipes. More features are being added as Alexa continues to evolve.
The Amazon Echo is an Alexa-enabled device that can control appliances in your house or order products from Amazon’s website via voice command. The device comes with a “wake word” – “Alexa” – which initiates Alexa’s response. Alexa works with both iOS and Android apps.
Alexa skills that are predicted to be the best in 2021
Currently, there are over 100,000 active Alexa skills in the Alexa Skills Store. You can control various smart devices, order pizza, play games relevant to your interests, and listen to great content from multiple sources. We have selected 11 Alexa skills that you should try out this year:
- Talk to Alexa in eight different languages and nine unique dialects
- Use MyPetDoc to get Alexa’s help with your dog
- Get inspired with a new recipe recommendation’s
- Clean your apartment
- Control the lightening system
- Play your favorite music and listen to any audiobooks you like
- Ask Alexa to give you the best nutrition tips
- Make voice or video call
- Keep your finance in order and regularly check the account balance
- Play games and watch TV
- Stay informed with the latest news
