Make an announcement around the house, change your speech rate, or recognize ambient noise, and Alexa lets you do more than just ask about the weather or control your music. In this tutorial, kwgeek shows you five smart home voice commands you absolutely need to know.
Amazon’s Alexa is one of the most popular voice assistants out there. You don’t even need a connected speaker to use Alexa, as it can be installed on your smartphone and tested with voice commands. After showing you known commands like “Alexa, what’s the weather like today?”or “Alexa, play never Gonna Give You Up By Rick Astley”, we reveal more of what you need to know.
In fact, in this tutorial, five fairly unknown but very useful voice commands have been discovered for your connected home.
5 Alexa voice commands you need to know about the connected home
change the speed of speech
Let’s start with orders from people who aren’t entirely satisfied with Alexa. If the voice on your smartphone or Echo speaker speaks to you too slowly, tell it. Use the following two commands:
- “Alexa, speak slowly”.
- “Alexa, speak faster”.
…speed will change.
From the Echo Show screen, you can also use voice commands. /©Amazon
Activate Noise Recognition via Routines
Do you live in a big house or like to wear headphones all day? In this case, simply place an Echo speaker near the front door to notify the door’s sound. Alternatively, this trick is also a great way to provide a little bit of safety for the hearing-impaired. With voice recognition, Alexa responds to a lot of noise with specific movements.
In addition to ringing the doorbell, it works well with smoke detectors, barking dogs, or running water. Want to learn more about voice assistant programs? Let me know in the comments!
Stream music based on mood or situation
It’s no secret that you can use your Echo speakers to play music without using your smartphone. But the editor is not familiar with the following functions. You can indeed play soundtracks that suit different situations. Especially to cheer you up, tidy up, dance, cook and everything that comes to mind.
- Just say, “Alexa, play music […]”
To determine if the music is really suitable for this situation, you will of course have to try it yourself. You may need to subscribe to Amazon Music or another music streaming app and find out there which playlists are available for certain moods and situations.
Use Alexa to make announcements around the house
If your smart home is all Alexa-based, you definitely need to know about the “Drop-In” feature. It allows you to make announcements in certain rooms without leaving your home. In France, all you have to do is say:
- “Alexa, come in [pièce]”
So you no longer have to yell around the house when a meal is ready, or disturb your kids when you have to briefly tell them something. What do you think of this feature?
enable self-destruct
If you don’t want to use your Echo speakers anymore, that’s fine! Just activate self-destruct mode and wait a few seconds. To do this, use the following command:
- “Alexa, turn on self-destruct mode”
Then you have to stand a few meters away from the fence, preferably keeping important documents and animals away. To replace your Echo speakers, here are some great deals:
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Do you already know these rather unknown Alexa commands? Let me know in the comments!