Most people are used to talking to their phones, even if it’s only to ask Siri or Cortana to set an alarm or timer. Alexa is Amazon’s voice assistant, built into the Echo and Echo Dot, but you’ll also find Alexa in other speakers, and Amazon’s Fire TV media streamer. Here we’ll explain how to talk to Alexa, what you can ask her and some things to say which will elicit an amusing response.
See also; Amazon Echo vs Google Home
Like any good digital assistant, you can speak to Alexa using natural language. She doesn't need training: she will respond to anyone’s voice. She’s a bit hit and miss with kids’ voices, but in general it’s a good thing if only you can control her.
When speaking, you don’t have to say “Alexa” and wait for a response. Just look and check that the LED ring has lit up, and carry on speaking. Bear in mind that unlike Siri and Google Assistant, Alexa can't take multiple commands at once.
What to ask Amazon Alexa
The basics
Alexa has a lot of capabilities, most of which you have to add via the Amazon Alexa app (get it for iOS and Android and Amazon Fire). Take a look through the available Skills and simply tap Enable to add that function.
But Alexa can handle a lot of general requests such as these:
- Time: Alexa, what time is it?
- Alarm: Alexa, set an alarm for weekdays at 7am
- Snooze alarm: Alexa, snooze
- Countdown timer: Alexa, set a timer for 10 minutes AND Alexa, how much time is left on my timer?
- Sleep timer: Alexa, stop playing in 30 minutes
- Volume: Alexa, turn up the volume OR Alexa, volume 5 [the range is 1-10]
- Volume: Alexa, quieter OR Alexa, mute
- Get help: Alexa, Help
- Stop whatever is playing: Alexa, stop
- Unit conversions: Alexa, what’s 100 miles in kilometres?
- Capital cities: Alexa, what’s the capital of Colombia?
- Maths: Alexa, what’s the square root of 64?
- Weather: Alexa, what’s the weather like? [you need to set your location in the app first]
- News: Alexa, give me the headlines [you can set up your Flash Briefing in the app]
- Traffic [set up your start and finish points in the app]: Alexa, what’s my commute?
To check for delays on the railways, enable the National Rail Skill in the Alexa app. You can speak to Alexa to set up your home and destination stations.
She can also handle general knowledge questions such as:
- Alexa, how tall is Kilimanjaro?
- Alexa, what’s the definition of putative?
- Alexa, why is the sky blue?
- Alexa, when is sunset today?
- Alexa, who plays Mark in Peep Show?
- Alexa, who is the lead singer of Jamiroquai?
- Alexa, how far is it from Manchester to Birmingham?
You should also try saying, Alexa, good morning [you’ll hear an interesting fact of the day]
Music and audio playback controls
Alexa is great for playing music. You can either upload music to your Amazon account, or you can play music from Prime Music if you have a Prime subscription.
If you have an Amazon Echo (as opposed to an Echo Dot), you can pair it via the Alexa app with your phone’s Bluetooth and use it as a Bluetooth speaker to play music stored on your phone. You can then use Alexa to control playback using some of the commands below.
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- Shuffle all music: Alexa, play some music
- Play an artist or album: Alexa, play Michael Bublé OR Alexa, play Back to Black
- Play a genre of music: Alexa, play some jazz
- Skip to the next track: Alexa, next
- Play the last song: Alexa, previous
- Repeat a song: Alexa, restart
- Start a playlist (you need to create these first in the Amazon Music app): Alexa, play the 1980s playlist
- Play music on Spotify (requires subscription): Alexa, play Michael Jackson on Spotify
- Get the name of a song: Alexa, which song is this?
- Listen to the radio: Alexa, play BBC Radio 4 on TuneIn [you have to say “in TuneIn” for it to work]
- Play music over Bluetooth: Alexa, connect to my phone
If you have an Echo Dot with a previously paired Bluetooth speaker: Alexa, pair
- Play an audiobook (you need an Audible subscription): Alexa, play [title of book] on Audible OR Alexa, play the book How to use Amazon Alexa | Funny things to ask Amazon Alexa
- Skip chapters: Alexa, next chapter OR Alexa, previous
- Read a Kindle book: Alexa, read me my Kindle book [then say the title of the book]
Alexa’s text to speech isn’t nearly as good as a proper audiobook, but it is one way to get her to read aloud books without an Audible subscription (but you still need to have purchased Kindle books).
Smart home
In the UK, there’s some support for smart light bulbs, thermostats and more. We expect this to expand rapidly, but for now, Alexa works with Nest, Philips HUE, LIFX, Netatmo, Hive, LightwaveRF, Smart Things, Honeywell Total Connect Comfort, digitalSTROM, MyFox and tado. Plus, Yonomi lets you control some other devices not directly supports, such as Logitech Harmony controls and Sonos systems.
In the Alexa app, tap the three horizontal bars (or just swipe to the right), then tap on Skills. Now you can search for your product or service and see if it is supported.
In general, once you enable the skill, you will need to log into the account for your smart product and authorise Alexa to use it. If there are multiple products, such as lights, you can usually group these or name them individually so you can control them together or separately.
Some examples, once this is all set up, include:
- Alexa, set the temperature in the Hallway to 20 degrees
- Alexa, tell Hive to boost my heating
- Alexa, lower bedroom by 3 degrees
- Alexa, turn on the lights in the lounge
- Alexa, turn off the kitchen light
- Alexa, tell Hive to turn on the kettle [this uses a smart plug]
Shopping, to-do lists and calendar
The Alexa app has a built-in to-do list and shopping list, and can sync with your Google calendar. You can then say:
- Alexa, add washing up liquid to my shopping list
- Alexa, add Go Shopping to my calendar on 15th November at 3pm
- Alexa, remind me to weed the garden
- Alexa, what’s on my calendar?
- Alexa, put get the car serviced on my To-Do list
Funny things to say to Alexa
Like Apple and Microsoft, Amazon has a sense of humour and has given Alexa lots of funny responses should you happen to say any of the things below:
- Alexa, get me a beer
- Alexa, are you a robot?
- Alexa, what are the three laws of robotics?
- Alexa, thank you
- Alexa, do you know Siri?
- Alexa, do you smoke?
- Alexa, tell me a joke
- Alexa, why did the chicken cross the road?
- Alexa, do a barrel roll
- Alexa, which came first: chicken or egg?
- Alexa, I want the truth
- Alexa, what’s the magic word?
- Alexa, give me a random number between 1 and 10
- Alexa, flip a coin
- Alexa, roll a dice
- Alexa, rock, paper, scissors
- Alexa, how can I get rid of a dead body?
- Alexa, where are my keys? (you need to ask this twice)
- Alexa, sing me a song
- Alexa, where do you live?
- Alexa, what’s your favourite colour?
- Alexa, will you marry me?
- Alexa, what are you wearing?
- Alexa, do you sleep?
- Alexa, how old are you?
- Alexa, give me a kiss
- Alexa, tell me a secret
- Alexa, do you believe in ghosts?
- Alexa, do aliens exist?
- Alexa, is there life on mars?
- Alexa, is there a santa?
- Alexa, what is the meaning of life?
- Alexa, testing 1, 2, 3
- Alexa, see you later
- Alexa, high five
- Alexa, clap
- Alexa, winter is coming
- Alexa, I am your father
- Alexa, use the force
- Alexa, beam me up
- Alexa, open the pod bay doors
- Alexa, are you skynet?
- Alexa, who you gonna call?
- Alexa, what’s the first rule of fight club?
For more on Amazon Echo, read our Echo and Echo Dot review.
