You probably pretty much familiar with the name “Amazon Echo” or “Alexa”. What it actually, it is an Amazon Alexa Controlled Echo Speaker. 6 Hidden Amazon Echo Features You Didn't Before.
You probably pretty much familiar with the
name “Amazon Echo” or “Alexa”. What it actually, it is an Amazon Alexa
Controlled Echo Speaker. It is not now a product for rich people, it has become
a product of your daily use. If you are a “Star Trek” fan and had fantasy on
this far command system, you may want to bring this one (Amazon Echo) to your
home.
Comparing with Google Assistant and Siri,
Alexa is still stuck within your home as
you cannot use Amazon Echo anywhere you want. (Here is a happy news. You can
now use Alexa far outside from your home. How? Yeah, we will tell you of that
later in this article). However, Amazon Echo is a cool device with full of
useful features, but not all of them are obvious really. In this article, we
will give you some amazon echo hidden
features, which are quite different from the basic functions in Alexa and
require some level of fiddling with the device to know how these features work.
Let’s go through in details.
Google Home
Cannot Control Android TV set, Can Amazon Echo?
With Amazon Echo, you can now control your
Android TV but it is only a good news for Sony TV users. What it means, Amazon
Echo’s voice command feature is currently integrated only with Sony TVs. But
you can bet, this feature will be added to Samsung and LG TVs soon.
With Sony’s new Alexa integration, you can
power on/off the TV, control live TV channels, volume, change inputs, and
control playback. However, for now, it does not have the skill to trigger
streaming services like Netflix or YouTube like Google Home has with Cast.
Get Your
Math Calculation Done By Echo
Amazing, right? But yeah, you can get done
your simple mathematical calculation with Amazon Echo. It will help you
whenever you need a quick and short calculation and get relief from using a calculator every single time. It can be useful
for your homework also.
Use Alexa-Amazon
Echo Anywhere
Here’s the part we have mentioned above.
This feature is really a new and still secret to most of the people. So, let’s
reveal the secret.
For using Alexa outside from your home, you
need a third party app named Echosim.io. All you need to go to
this site with a microphone and log into your Amazon
account. Then simply just click on the blue button and start talking with your
Alexa and can switch on/off your room light, turn off the pc, know about the
room temperature and so on. Awesome, isn’t it?
Listen Any
Music Whenever You Want and Any of One
Just tell to Alexa a song name and it will
start playing. It is really a handy and top most favorite feature only if you
have a premium membership. Moreover, you
can add songs from Spotify and ask Alexa to play any of your music or playlists.
You just have to link your Amazon echo to
Spotify account.
You can also get the music cheap rate if
you have bought an Amazon Echo. Generally, it costs $8 for prime members per
month. But you can get the music cheaper and its $4 per month.
Read Kindle
Books
Did you know, echo can read a certain book on kindle books using text speech?
Go to your smartphone app. then music,
video & books. Here at the bottom you will see the word "kindle"
and press it. Here you will find all of the books of your Kindle collection. A note: Not all books in here
are supporting but it is a great little feature.
If you have recently bought or already have owned an Amazon Kindle,
you can now connect your kindle to Amazon Echo. That means the contents of your tablet can be shared with your Amazon Echo.
An Amazing
Hands-Free Tool
Imagine a situation you are cooking. So,
both of your hands are not free to operate any device. Just put your Echo
device in your kitchen while starting your cook, and give command while
cooking. You can ask to know what time is it, can set the timer, or ask Alexa
to add a product to your shopping list.
You also can do your to-do management just
over your voice command with Alexa. Ask Alexa anytime to hear your next works
to do or to do the shopping list. All
these can be done also over your voice command if you are busy with your work
or just lying on your bed.
You can also listen to the radio, news or a
podcast on Amazon Echo anytime.
Alexa Is
Fun
The developers of Alexa are not boring at all. They
make it such a way you can make fun with that and make your boring time
enjoyable. Ask Alexa to tell jokes and it
will tell you really good ones every time.
If you or your family facing trouble with making any
decision, Alexa will be right beside you. How? Just say “Alexa, roll a Die” and
Alexa will give you any random number from one to six.
Bonus: Some
Useful Commands You May Not Know About
These are some useful commands you are
going to ask Alexa most. You should take a screenshot
and save it for later! Check below:
*To control volume and media you can use:
"Alexa, stop." or "Alexa,
cancel."
"Alexa, turn it down." or
"Alexa, softer."
"Alexa, turn it up." or
"Alexa, louder."
"Alexa, volume 2." (Choose
between 0-10)
*Listening music on Amazon Echo is also very
fun. While listening music Echo, you can say:
"Alexa set a sleep timer for [X]
minutes."
"Alexa, play some jazz [or your
genre/artist of choice]."
"Alexa, pause." or "Alexa,
resume."
"Alexa, loop."
"Alexa, next song."
"Alexa, restart.
*If you are like to listen Pandora or
iHeartRadio, just say:
"Alexa, I like this song."
or "Alexa, thumbs down."
*Here are some other ones people use
frequently:
"Alexa, what time is it?"
"Alexa, wake me up at 7 am."
"Alexa, what's the weather like in
[your city + state]."
Some New
Features of Amazon Echo Plus
·
Far-field voice recognition- Enables hearing your questions from any point or
direction, even while playing music.
·
Short and compact- Enables more
portability and handy.
·
Built-in smart hub- New Amazon
Echo Plus has a hub inside which controls all compatible smart devices such as
electric light bulbs, locks of the door, switches etc.
·
Hands-free Calling.
·
Advanced level skill in the calculation.
If you want to know more about the new
Amazon Echo, go here and check the latest
updates it brings.
Conclusion
You can find a ton of hidden features of
Amazon Echo but we have covered in this article the most unknown and essential
features you can use. There is still controversy whether you buy Amazon Echo or
Google Home, you probably get some unique and updated features in Echo device.
But if you are really confused to which one you should go, you can read this article to
make your decision super easy.
Amazon Echo is really a cool device to make
your daily life smarter and easier. But not so easier you think. It is still
just a luxurious product and Amazon cannot make it an essential device of
everybody’s daily life. Yeah, it is true that it has some flaws but the
developers are working to make it an essential product to use.
