Amazon’s amicable virtual assistant has found a special place in our daily lives. With automation, basic scheduling, and a few added extras, Alexa has shown what it can do. All that’s left is for people to take advantage of the plethora of features it has and put them to good use.
Indubitably so, Alexa’s smart features have made our lives much more efficient in general. In fact, for some people, a life without a virtual assistant would be unimaginable.
Something many people seem to forget is that Alexa is continuously under development due to the immense success of its services. As such, various new capabilities are developed and tested every day. Many of these new features make it to your Amazon home devices.
We have compiled a list of 7 things that you might not know Alexa could do. Test your knowledge of Amazon’s virtual assistant by reading on below.
1. Amusement for When You’re Bored
We all have times when we just don’t have the drive to finish a task and need to take our mind off of something. Be it writer’s block or just plain annoyance from the worries of life, they all impede us from being productive. It’s especially at times like this that Alexa’s jokes, one-liners, and amusement tactics come in handy. In case you are in the mood for some humor, Alexa can tell you a variety of jokes and cheesy pickup lines. For when you are a bit more serious, Alexa can tell interesting and thought-provoking facts to get your mind going.
2. Tell a Personalized Bedtime Story
Often we tend to get sleepier after hearing bedtime stories than our children, so why not leave the tough stuff to Alexa? You can effortlessly let the virtual assistant read your child’s favorite bedtime stories while they go to sleep. You can maximize the benefit by creating an account on the BedtimeWeb site, where numerous stories are posted. A plus point would be the fact that you can even write a personal bedtime story for your children and let Alexa read it out loud.
3. Talk to Your Cats
Have a busy schedule, and feel you don’t give your pets the time they deserve? This isn’t a solution, but Alexa can help make it more palatable for your attention-deprived pets. You will need to download a skill via the Alexa app called ‘Meow’ for cat owners and ‘Woof’ for dog owners.
What this skill does is that it turns Alexa into a virtual dog or cat. Alexa tries to emulate sounds made by animals whenever your cat or dog makes a sound. Your pets will be entertained all day with the continuous sounds given off by Alexa. You can even tell Alexa to make an animal sound to use as a command.
4. Help You Get in Shape
Getting fit is never as easy as people think it is. People often forget that exercise and a balanced diet are pivotal to maintaining a healthy body. However, in this age of awkward work schedules and inconsistent timing, people don’t deserve all the blame. Thankfully, Alexa can help you with the fitness part.
At the time of writing, Alexa has over thirty fitness-related skills. It also has a fitness skill that can give you access to a variety of different workouts focused on varying parts of your body. Alexa suggests top-rated exercises depending on the target muscle group. Furthermore, it can help with yoga, Pilates, and meditation. For maximum productivity, it can even link with sports watches such as Fitbit.
5. Donate to Charity
If you want to donate to a cause but find the entire process of doing so a bit hard, you can have Alexa do the task for you. By telling Alexa that you want to make a donation, it will give you hundreds of different options from the available charities.
Donation can be simple and straightforward. A small amount of money can go a long way when it comes to relief efforts. A higher amount is always more beneficial, but it’s the thought that counts. A point to note is that you need to have Amazon Pay set up beforehand so that the transaction can actually take place.
6. Play Skyrim
When Todd Howard said at Pre-E3 that you would be able to play Skyrim on Alexa, everyone thought it was just another jest, with the developers trying to get a good old laugh out of the audience. But here we are, with Bethesda’s greatest selling RPG titles actually being playable on Alexa.
The Skyrim Very Special Edition seems to be an elaborate goof accidentally made into reality. However, there is no doubt that fans of the series will appreciate it. After all, who wouldn’t want to play an RPG using a virtual assistant? You can play Skyrim by going to the Amazon app, selecting the Alexa icon, and telling Alexa to open Skyrim.
7. Waking You Up to Your Favorite Songs
Tired of waking up from that same-old rustic alarm tune that died out in the 90s? Switch it up for something a little different. Tell Alexa to play a song as the alarm sound. It will be far more enjoyable and won’t leave that lousy aftertaste for whenever you are late to something. No need to set songs explicitly, though, since practically anything can be set as the alarm sound.
This also has uses other than alarms. Rig Alexa to play weird or goofy music at a time your friend comes over to weird them out. You can even time it just as dinner starts or right in the middle of the night.
Conclusion
That’s all for this list. Regardless of the many skills at Alexa’s disposal, each one is tailored to make your life easier and more productive, but there’s always room for improvement. As Alexa continues to grow day by day, who knows what the future holds? Maybe ten years from now, we won’t even need a virtual assistant.
