50 Best Alexa Commands For Your Echo Or Alexa Speaker 2018

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Best Alexa Commands (Sections)

Music Controls

Let us start our list with the command that you are going to use the most and that is playing music on your Echo speakers.

1. Play Songs

2. Check What Song is Playing

If you’re playing a random Spotify playlist, and you hear a song that you don’t recognize, you can ask your Echo to tell you what song it is playing by saying, “Alexa, what song is this?“.

3. Increase Volume

Other variations of this command are: “Alexa, higher volume”, “Alexa, more sound” etc.

4. Decrease Volume

Similarly, if you want to reduce the volume, you can say, “Alexa, decrease the volume“ and it will automatically decrease the volume by a single step. Other variations of this command are: “Alexa, lower volume“, “Alexa less sound“ etc.

5. Set Volume to a Particular Value

Increasing or decreasing the volume by the commands given might suffice for some situations, but what if you want to increase the volume to a particular value. If you use the commands given above, you might have to repeat them multiple times. In such situations, you can simply say, “Alexa, volume 5” to set the volume to 50% of the maximum value. You can use a value between 0-10 in the command to go from 0% to 100%. Other variations of this command are: “Alexa, set volume to 5“, “Alexa, change volume to 50%“, etc.

Time Related Commands

1. Get the Current Time

Other variations of this command are “Alexa, what time is it?“, “Alexa, tell me the time“ and more.

2. Set Alarms

Another variation of this command is “Alexa, wake me up at 7 AM“.

3. Set Timers

Another variation for this command is “Alexa, timer 5 minutes“.

4. Check the Time left on Your Timer

If you need to check the amount of time left on your timer, you can ask Alexa by saying, “Alexa, how much time is left on my timer,“ and Echo will tell you the amount of time that is left before your timer is up. Another variation of this command is “Alexa, time left on my timer?”

5. Cancel Timer

If you need to cancel the timer, you can simply say, “Alexa, cancel my timer“ and Echo will cancel the timer for you. Another variation of this command is “Alexa, cancel timer“.

6. Check your Next Alarm

Calendars and Reminders

1. Check schedule

One of the first thing that I do whenever I am ready to leave my home for office is to ask Alexa for my schedule. In a few seconds, I have a clear idea of my day looks like and I am ready to roll. To check your schedule, just say, “Alexa, what’s on my schedule?”, and it will show you your schedule.

2. Create events

Of course, to be able to see your schedules, you will need to add events and meetings to your calendar. You can either manually add things to your calendar or just Alexa to do it for you. Just say, “Alexa, add “this event” to my calendar”. You can even dictate specific time and date, and Alexa will make the event at the exact time and date that you dictate. For example, I can say, “Alexa, add dentist appointment on Monday 4 PM to my calendar” and it will create an event called dentist appointment at the exact time and date that I just dictated.

3. Get calendar forecast

I also love the fact that not only I can see my schedule for today but also see the forecast for the following days it I want to. Just say, “Alexa, what am I doing tomorrow?” Or “Alexa, What’s on my calendar for on Tuesday” and it will show you the events for that particular day.

4. Create reminders

Alexa can also create reminders for you. Just say, “Alexa, remind me to buy milk, 4 PM tomorrow.”

To-Do and Shopping Lists

1. Add Tasks to Your To-Do List

Alexa can also create to-do list for you. If you want to add tasks to your to-do list, simply say, “Add create website backup to my to-do list“, and Echo will add it to your to-do list. You can replace “create website backup” with the task that you want to add to your to-do list. Note: While the Echo can add items to your to-do list, you will have to go into the Alexa app to actually remove the items from your to-do list.

2. Check Your To-Do List

You can also ask Alexa to read out your to-do list, by saying, “Alexa, what’s on my to-do list“. Echo will read out all the tasks that you have added to your to-do list. Another variation of this command is “Alexa, read my to-do list“.

3. Add Items to Your Shopping List

Another list that Alexa can maintain for you is a shopping list. You can add items that you need to buy by saying, “Alexa, add bread to my shopping list“, and Alexa will add it to your shopping list. Note: You will have to go into the Alexa app to actually check items off your shopping list.

4. Check Your Shopping List

If you want to know all the items that are on your shopping list, you can say, “Alexa, what’s on my Shopping List?” Another variation of this command is “Alexa, read my shopping list“.

Alexa Commands for Audiobooks

1. Play Audiobooks from Audible

2. Pause and Resume Audiobooks

Audiobooks are usually quite long, and if you need to pause your audiobook, you can simply say, “Alexa, pause“, and Echo will pause the audio book. You can resume the audio book by saying, “Alexa, resume“. The good thing is that Alexa remembers where you stopped playback the last time you were listening to the audio book, and continues playback from there.

3. Flip Through Chapters

If you want to skip chapters, you can ask Alexa to do just that by saying, “Alexa, next chapter“, or “Alexa, previous chapter“.

4. Go to A Specific Chapter Number

If you want to skip ahead or rewind back to a particular chapter, you can simply say, “Alexa, go to chapter number 5“, or whichever chapter you want to go to.

5. Restart Your Audiobook

1. Add Products to Cart

Get Facts and Knowledge

1. Ask About Mountains and Oceans

2. Ask About Novels and Books

You can even ask the Alexa about authors of books and novels. Suppose you’ve been living in the woods and wanted to know who wrote Harry Potter. You can say, “Alexa, who wrote Harry Potter“, and it will give you the answer.

3. Ask About Countries and States

Alexa can also get information about countries and states. So, if you forget the capital city of a country, you can say, “Alexa, what’s the capital of Spain?“. You can even ask about population data by saying, “Alexa, what’s the population of Spain?”

4. Ask About TV Shows and Movies

So you’re watching a new TV show, and you want to know the name of the actor portraying a character? You could google it, but you could also simply ask Alexa by saying, “Alexa, who plays Jon Snow in Game of Thrones“, obviously replacing the names with the ones that you want to find out about.

5. Check Wikipedia Entries

If you want, Alexa can even read out Wikipedia entries for topics. You can simply say, “Alexa, Wikipedia Kansas“ and it will read out the Wikipedia entry for Kansas.

Alexa Commands to Check Definitions and Spellings

1. Get Definitions

If you hear a word you don’t know the meaning to, you can ask Alexa to help you out. Simply say, “Alexa, what’s the definition of precarious?“ and it will tell you what the word means.

2. Find Spellings

Often, we forget the spelling for words that we used to know. It happens to us all, and Alexa can help in such situations. Simply say, “Alexa, how do you spell ceiling?“, or whichever word you want to know the spelling of.

Math Commands

1. Simple Math

Alexa can help you with simple mathematical problems, such as addition, multiplication, etc. You can say, “Alexa, what’s 5 plus 3“ or “Alexa, what’s 5 times 3?”

2. Advanced Math

Simple math is not all that Alexa can do. It can also solve advanced math queries. Try saying, “Alexa, 70 factorial.“ and get ready to hear numbers you had never heard before, for almost a minute.

Translation Commands

1. Translate from English to Another Language

If you want to translate a sentence from English to another language, you can say, “Alexa, translate good morning to Spanish“ and it will do that.

2. Translate from Other Languages to English

You can even ask your Echo to translate sentences from other languages to English by saying, “Alexa, translate hola to English“. Obviously, you can replace “hola” with the word or sentence you want to translate.

Controlling Smart Home Products via Alexa

1. Find and connect smart home devices

Alexa makes it very easy to connect your smart home devices. If there is a new device that you have just installed and want to connect to Alexa, just say, “Alexa, discover my devices” and it will find all the new compatible smart home devices.

2. Control lights

Considering you have compatible smart lights installed, you can ask Alexa to control their functions. Just say,”Alexa, lights on” or “Alexa, turn the bedroom lights on”. Similarly, you can also say, “Alexa, turn the bathroom lights off” or “Alexa, change the kitchen light to blue” and so on.

3. Control thermostat

You can also control compatible thermostats with your voice. Just say, “Alexa, set the temperature to 21” and it will do that.

4. Control Locks

Just like lights and thermostats, you can also control smart locks with Alexa. Just say, “Alexa, open/lock the front door” and it will do that.

5. Control Fire TV

You can also ask deeper questions. For example, try asking, “Alexa, show me the movies starring Hugh Jackman” and it will show all the movies in its catalog which stars the said actor or actress. You can also switch to next/previous episode by saying, “Alexa, play next/previous episode”.

Alexa Skills

Apart from the usual commands that we discussed above, Alexa also comes with a set of skills which allows it to do quite complex and amazing things. While you can see a full set of skills here, below are some of my favorite Alexa skills:

1. Play games and quizzes

One of my favorite time pass things to do these days is play games with Alexa. Whenever I just have a few minutes to pass (waiting for the download to finish), I can play a round of trivia or quiz or song quiz or anything else that I want. Some of the commands to play games and quizzes are:

“Alexa, play Twenty Questions.” “Alexa, start Song Quiz.” “Alexa, open the Magic Door.” “Alexa, ask Question of the Day.” “Alexa, play Jeopardy.”

2. Go back to school skills

Go back to school skills are great for learning stuff in the small amount of downtime that you have. You can learn geography, vocabulary, math and more. Here are some commands that you can use:

3. Meditation and focus skills

Another thing that you can do is to ask Alexa to play meditational or focus music. I generally use this skill when I am working on a project and don’t want to be disturbed by noises around me. Here are some of the commands you can use:

“Alexa, open Meditation Timer for 10 minutes.” “Alexa, play Rainforest Sounds.” “Alexa, play white noise.”

4. Check your emails with Cortana

If your office uses Microsoft Exchange account, you can check your emails by using a combination of Alexa and Cortana (Microsoft’s voice assistant). To use Cortana, start with, “Alexa, open Cortana” then say, “What new emails do I have?” You can also use this skill to add things to your exchange calendar or to-do lists:

“Alexa open Cortana” then “What’s on my calendar for tomorrow?” “Alexa get me Cortana,” then “Add order flowers to my to-do list.”

5. Get the news

Alexa integrates with various news sources including BBC News, NPR News, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and more. You can ask any of these sources to play you the news. Just say any of the following commands:

“Alexa, what’s my Flash Briefing?” “Alexa, what’s in the news?” “Alexa, what’s on BBC?”

6. Learn Greek mythology

This one is my personal favorite. I have always been interested in mythical stories of various cultures and learning little nuggets of information about Greek mythology has been great. If you also want to use this skill, just say, “Alexa, open knowledge of the gods” and it will start asking you questions based on Greek mythology. Answer correctly or wrongly, you will learn something new.

7. Announcements

Alexa’s announcement skill is a great way to let everyone in your household know the same fact. When you use this feature, every Echo device in your home announces the message. For example, if you want to announce that dinner is ready, you can say, “Alexa, announce that dinner’s ready”. Some of the alternative commands are:  

“Alexa, broadcast that we are leaving in five minutes.” “Alexa, announce that we are ordering Chinese today.”

Using Alexa Skill Blueprints

1. Play a Host

If you always host guests at your home you can create a skill called houseguest and enter generic questions and answers that guests generally ask. For example, you can create questions for your WiFi password, TV remotes, the location of appliances, and more. Once you have set up the skill any house guest can access them by first saying, “Alexa, open My Houseguest Guide,” And then asking the relevant questions.

2. Create your personal sidekick

With Alexa Blueprints, you can create your personal sidekick which will tell you the answers which you have already fed into the system. To access your sidekick, just say, “Alexa, open My Bestie.”

3. Create adventure stories for your children

This is one of the best skills for parents. With this skill, you can basically create adventure stories for your children where they are the heroes. Just invoke the skill by saying, Alexa, open My Adventure Story”. Now, Alexa will ask you the names of heroes and villains. Just answer the name of your child as a hero and whatever villain name your fancy. Then say, “Alexa, tell me the story” and it will recite a short story with your children as hero characters. Now, how cool is that.

4. Create flashcards

Alexa can also help you prepare for tests. Just create your audio flashcards by entering the questions and answers and whenever you are ready to be tested, say, “Alexa, open My Flashcards.”

5. Curate a list of your favorite quotes

You can use Alexa blueprints to create a curated list of your favorite quotes. Just add your favorite quotes and give the skill a name. Whenever you want to listen to your favorite quotes, just say, “Alexa, open “your skill name” and it will start reading your favorite quotes.

Special Skills for Echo Show

1. Get showtimes with Fandango

“Alexa, Ask Fandango what’s playing at a nearby theater.” “Alexa, Open Fandango.” “Alexa, Ask Fandango to search for “movie name”.”

2. Watch gameplay with Twitch

“Alexa, open Twitch.” “Alexa, ask Twitch for followed channels.” “Alexa, ask Twitch to play Ninja.”

3. Get recipes with Allrecipes

“Alexa, open Allrecipes.” “Alexa, ask Allrecipes for a “dish name” recipe.” “Alexa, ask Allrecipes for a recipe with chicken, bacon, and broccoli.”

4. Check smart camera feeds

5. Make Video Calls

6. Use Drop In

Drop In is an optional feature that helps you connect instantly, hands free. While Drop In works with all the Alexa enabled speakers, I find it mostly useful for making video calls. Just say, “Alexa, Drop in on the kitchen” or “Alexa, Drop in on the Echo Show” and it will automatically connect to that device. You can even give Drop In permission to your family members or close friends so they can contact you any time they want to. SEE ALSO: 15 Best Smart Home Devices You Can Buy in India