How To Talk To Alexa?
How Do I Use Alexa on my Phone? – With Alexa right in your Android phone, you get to make use of this handy voice assistant’s skills no matter where you might be. To start giving voice commands to Alexa on your Android, follow these steps:
Launch the Amazon Alexa app on your phone. Tap the Alexa icon by the bottom of the screen. Tap Allow to give Alexa permission to access your phone’s microphone. On some devices, you might need to tap Allow again when prompted by a security pop-up. Tap Done. To use Alexa, give her a command or ask her a question.
By following the step-by-step guide above, you should be able to interact with Alexa, even when you’re not in the same location as your Amazon Echo device. If you want to find out all the other cool things you can do with Alexa, check out our guide here. 
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Can I just talk to Alexa?
On-device text will appear in English for devices with a screen. हिन्दी / English (India) – You can speak to Alexa in English and Hindi, and she will respond in that language. On-device text will appear in Hindi for devices with a screen.
How do I use Alexa without the app?
How to Connect Alexa to a New WiFi Network Without the App – To connect Alexa to a new WiFi network without the app, go to alexa.amazon.com and sign in. Then click Settings > Set up a new device and select your device. Next, put your device in pairing mode and connect to its WiFi network. Finally, choose your new network and enter your password.
Open a web browser and go to alexa.amazon.com, You can do this using Google Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or any other browser. Then log in to your Amazon account. Enter your Amazon username and password. If you don’t have an Amazon account, click the Create a New Amazon Account button at the bottom of the window. 
Next, click Settings, You will see this in the left sidebar of the window. If you don’t see this option, expand your browser window or zoom out on the page. 
Then select Set up a new device, 
Next, select the kind of Alexa device you want to connect to a new WiFi network. You can see more options by scrolling down. 
Then click Continue, 
Next, plug your Alexa device into a power source. 
Then wait for the ring light to turn orange. Note: If you don’t see your device’s light ring turn orange, select Don’t see the orange light ring? Then you will see which button you have to push on your device. In most cases, you will need to press and hold the action button with the dot in the middle on the top of your Echo device. 
Next, connect to a network with the format Amazon-XXX. Without closing your browser, go to your computer or phone’s WiFi networks. If you’re using a Windows10 computer to set up Alexa, you can click the WiFi icon in the bottom-right corner of your screen. If you’re using a Mac, you can find the WiFi icon in the upper right area of the screen. And, if you’re using a phone or a tablet, just go to Settings > WiFi, Then you should see the network listed among all your available WiFi networks. 
Go back to your browser and click Continue, Once you have connected to your WiFi network, you will see a window that says, “Your computer is connected” to your Alexa device. 
Then select the WiFi network you want to connect Alexa to. If you choose a previously saved network, you can skip the next step. 
Next, enter your WiFi password and click Connect, 
Finally, wait for your Alexa device to connect to the new WiFi network. Once you are done, you can test the connection by asking Alexa a question. For example, you can say, “Alexa, what’s the weather like tomorrow?”
If you want to use Alexa on the computer, check out our guide on how to download the Alexa app on your Windows 10 PC, 
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What is a Alexa good for?
Photo: Michael Hession Alexa is the voice-controlled digital assistant that turns words into actions. You interact with Alexa through smart speakers and displays, using voice commands or a smartphone app. Whether you’re looking for an Alexa-powered smart speaker for jamming to music, finding and following recipes, keeping up with podcasts and the news, or controlling smart devices in your home, we’ve picked out the best model for your needs.
Because Alexa performs inconsistently on non-Amazon speakers, we focused on Amazon Echo devices. Speakers and touchscreens All Echo devices have speakers, but some also include a screen to view video, access touch controls, display recipes, and more. Picking the right Echo device depends largely on where you’ll use it, as well as what functions you want or don’t want, such as a video camera or powerful audio. All Alexa devices have built-in microphones in order to function, and some have cameras. If you want to ensure privacy, you can manually mute or disable them.
Read more Nena Farrell, who took over this guide in 2022, is an updates writer for Wirecutter’s audio/visual and smart-home teams. She’s been testing and reviewing home-technology gear since 2016, and she was previously an associate home editor at Sunset magazine, where she covered smart-home technology.
- She also designed the Sunset Smart Cottage, an interactive smart-home demonstration controlled by smart speakers.
- Portions of this guide are based on previous testing by senior editor Grant Clauser, who has reviewed consumer electronics for about 20 years.
- Alexa is the name of Amazon’s personal digital assistant, which lets you use voice commands to control a compatible device for features like streaming music, news reports, or even to turn on your smart lights.
Amazon’s Echo line of smart speakers and displays includes the standard Echo, the compact Echo Dot, the Echo Studio, and a few models of the video-enabled Echo Show smart display, Alexa is also available on some speakers made by other manufacturers.
All of the Echo devices are good (some are even great) audio devices, but what makes them especially attractive is that you control them primarily by using simple voice commands. To access a song, an artist, or a music channel, you can say, “Alexa, play the Dead Milkmen,” and your speaker starts playing the music you requested—assuming you’ve connected it to your music subscriptions,
All Amazon Echo speakers can play music from Amazon Music Prime, Pandora, Spotify, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, and Apple Music. Some services, such as Pandora and TuneIn, don’t cost anything extra, but Amazon Music Prime requires a Prime subscription (and you can get Amazon Music Unlimited for an additional, per-speaker cost).
- Apple Music, SiriusXM, and Spotify Premium also require subscriptions.
- You can also set up Alexa speakers as a multiroom audio system, an arrangement that allows you to play the same music all over your house or different tunes in different rooms (though your music subscriptions may impose some restrictions on that).
The Alexa app allows you to group speakers in different rooms or zones, and you simply have to tell your speaker which room you want the music to play in (or whether it should play in all of them). Setting up the system is a little trickier than using a similarly featured Sonos system,
- The Alexa smartphone app is mostly for setup and configuration, or to add new abilities or view to-do and shopping lists.
- Most of the time, you access Alexa’s features without having to interact with a screen at all (the Echo Show devices include built-in screens).
- You can walk into a quiet room and ask for music or step into a dark room and ask for lights.
Beyond streaming tunes, Alexa can answer general questions (“Alexa, who was Guy Fawkes?”), make quick cooking conversions (“Alexa, how many pints are in a gallon?”), help with math homework (“Alexa, what’s 9 times 48?”), or create a to-do list (“Alexa, add ‘make doctor’s appointment’ to my to-do list”).
- You can also use an Alexa speaker to make phone calls or as part of an in-house intercom system to talk through other Alexa speakers inside and outside your home.
- The list of built-in capabilities and thousands of third-party Skills continually expands.
- This guide is for anyone looking to add an Alexa-powered smart speaker into their home, whether for the first time or when adding to an existing setup.
If you’re just getting started with smart devices, such as a smart plug or light bulb, adding a smart speaker that lets you use voice commands to control them is a logical next step. This is also a convenient addition for existing Amazon Prime users, since an Echo device can give you alerts about your latest order, and Echo Show smart displays can act like a TV for Amazon Prime Video as well as other streaming services like Netflix and Hulu.
- This guide is organized to make it easy to choose the best Echo device based on your needs.
- For smaller homes and apartments, you might find you want only one or two Alexa devices, since the microphones are powerful enough to pick up voice commands from a room away.
- In larger homes, you may want to enlist a fleet of Alexa devices to act as a multiroom sound system, while also optimizing your ability to control smart devices.
We can’t speak about smart speakers without addressing the fact that these devices have microphones and, in some cases, cameras, and there are plenty of people who simply aren’t comfortable adding them to their home. (If you share those concerns, please read our section on Security and privacy with Alexa for details on what these devices actually do and don’t do.) For those who have accessibility restrictions, such as mobility and sight limitations in particular, the ability to use voice commands can also be a valuable asset.
For instance, smart speakers allow someone to make voice calls without needing to physically manipulate a device, but they also can be used as an intercom to communicate with other members of a household (or, when paired with a smart doorbell, with visitors on the front porch). Echo Show smart displays allow those with vision impairment to hold up a pantry item and have it identified.
We go into a little more detail on Alexa’s accessibility offerings below, And we go into even more detail in our guides to using smart-home devices for seniors aging in place and for enhancing independence for those with disabilities and mobility needs, 
Photo: Michael Hession For this guide we considered all currently available Echo speakers and smart displays. In previous versions of this guide, we also considered third-party Alexa-compatible speakers. But the experience of using Alexa on those devices was consistently worse compared with using any Amazon Echo device; most suffered from sometimes-lengthy delays to voice commands, had fewer or less reliable integration of special features, and didn’t receive updates or new Alexa features as quickly.
As a result, we believe if you’re interested in an Alexa speaker, the best choice is one of the various Amazon-branded Echo devices. This guide is focused solely on comparing those devices—the Echo, Echo Dot, and Echo Show (we previously covered the latter only in our guide to smart displays )—to compare which experience is best for your lifestyle or different places in your home.
Most Alexa speakers do essentially the same things: play streaming audio and respond to voice commands. Because they all use the Alexa platform, they’re all compatible with the same smart-home devices, and they all include essentially the same skill set.
All of them have volume controls, a button to turn off the microphones, and a button to get the device to listen without your having to speak the wake word. Many also function as Bluetooth speakers and can send their audio to another Bluetooth speaker. In testing, we consider both the speaker’s performance as a smart speaker and its sound qualities, along with any additional features, such as an included screen or a rechargeable battery.
In addition to the general Alexa features, we evaluate each speaker on the following criteria:
Listening: A voice-controlled device is useless if it can’t hear you, so we test them at various distances and voice volumes, and with and without background noise (including the speaker’s own music). Sound quality: We listen to a variety of music, both through standard streaming services and via Bluetooth. Sound quality varies greatly because some of the Alexa speakers are designed for more critical listening than others. But we look for reasonably good sound in line with the price and size of the speaker. Design: Smart speakers aren’t devices that you hide away, so you’re likely to prefer a speaker that looks good on a shelf or counter, especially if you plan to use more than one in your home. Setup and use: All Alexa speakers use the Alexa app. But we still compared to see if different models had different setup steps, such as an Echo smart display versus the speaker-only Echos. We then compared how each one’s features could be used and where each model excelled in the home.
Photo: Michael Hession
What happens when you whisper to Alexa?
The easiest way to turn that on is to simply whisper to Alexa. Say something, like ‘What’s the weather,’ but whisper it instead of speaking. Alexa will respond in a whisper. That’s it!
How does voice recognition work with Alexa?
Amazon’s Alexa can sometimes misunderstand or misinterpret you when you speak to your Echo device, If you live in a household with other Amazon users, the voice assistant may also have trouble figuring out which person is speaking. Thankfully, there’s a solution.
- You can train Alexa to better recognize you by creating a Voice ID.
- After you set up your ID, Alexa can call you by your name and deliver personalized results based on your voice.
- Alexa can even distinguish your voice from those of other people in the house.
- Adults, teenagers, and children can all create a voice profile.
Let’s check out how.