Alexa is Amazon’s smart voice control system that can make life at home a lot more pleasant and easier. To get the most out of your smart home, you need to know what you can ask Alexa. That’s why we discuss the most useful commands for Amazon’s voice service.
Although Amazon now has a Dutch website, Alexa does not yet support the Dutch language. This means that you have to speak in English. You can then use these commands.
Call or text
When setting up your Amazon Echo speaker, you can enter the contacts from your smartphone. This makes it possible to call friends or family directly via Alexa using the command Alexa, call [naam]. If you want to send someone a text message in this way, the other person must also have the Alexa app. Only then can you Alexa, text [naam] record and send a text message. Unfortunately, you have to record this message in English.
Playing music
If you want to play music, you can simply ask Alexa to play a certain song or album with Alexa, play [naam afspeellijst, nummer, artiest of album] on Spotify. Amazon Echo supports Spotify and Apple Music, among other things, provided you have linked your account to the Alexa app.
Control smart devices
If you have the necessary smart devices at home, such as a robot vacuum cleaner or smart lighting, you can easily control them with Alexa. Connect the smart device to your Amazon Echo speaker and say, for example Alexa, turn lights on in the living room or Alexa, dim the Philips Hue lights to 75 percent. If you have a smart thermostat, you can think of commands such as Alexa, raise the temperature with 5 degree. If you want Alexa to search for smart devices in the house itself, you can use the command Alexa, discover my smart devices to use.
Set an alarm
It happens to everyone from time to time: you are nice and warm in bed, but you have forgotten to set the alarm clock for tomorrow. Fortunately, you don’t have to go out to pick up your phone. With the command Alexa set an alarm for 7 am tomorrow turn on your alarm clock with your voice.
Make shopping list
You probably have to complete a shopping list several times during the week. And every time you have to grab your phone. If something suddenly comes to mind, you want to put it on your list immediately, even if your phone is not nearby. Alexa prevents you from forgetting to put a message on the list. With the command Alexa, create a list you can create a shopping list. Then you can, for example, use the command Alexa, add eggs to my [naam] list add eggs to your shopping list. If you want to create a to-do list, you can say Alexa, create a to-do list called [naam]. Just be sure to leave a short pause between the items you add to the list, otherwise Alexa will think it’s just one task or message.
