Did you just get a new Echo Dot smart speaker for Christmas? Reports are showing that Amazon’s smart speaker was the most popular Christmas gift, especially in Europe where Alexa actually shut down because too many people were trying to access it at the same time. Nonetheless, the smart speaker is a great gadget to have around the house and this is the reason why it’s so popular.
With that being said, today we want to make sure that all new Echo Dot owners know what the smart speaker is capable of and in order to do that, we are going to list the top eight Alexa tips & tricks that everyone needs to learn. These tips & tricks are great to know because they will prove to be quite useful and even make your life easier in terms of checking emails, setting reminders and much more.
Top Eight Alexa Tips & Tricks
#1 Share Accounts!
The first tip that we are going to present is to share accounts. Many people don’t know this, but the Echo Dot smart speaker can have multiple accounts and the useful thing about this is that you can choose to switch between accounts whenever you want. Everyone can set up as many accounts as they want by simply logging in to alexa.amazon.com and then head over to “Settings – Accounts – Household Profile”.
The reason why you might want to set up multiple accounts is because Alexa will learn details about them. Let’s say for example your significant other enjoys listening to classic music, Alexa will remember that and play classic tunes whenever your significant other asks her to play a song.
#2 Place Skype Calls (New)
One of the best things about Alexa is the fact that Amazon keeps improving it through regular updates. In fact, the latest update for Alexa has made the AI assistant able to perform Skype calls. Therefore, we advise everyone who has an Echo Dot sitting in their living room to start using Skype. We should note that letting users place video/audio calls on Skype with Alexa is a direct jab at Facebook. Amazon wants to separate Amazon devices from Facebook’s services such as the Messenger app which works similarly to Skype.
#3 Mute the Wake Word
Every time you say “Alexa” and follow it up with a sentence, the AI assistant will automatically listen and try to provide you with an answer to your question or take care of the tasks that you talked about. However, this wake work can be quite annoying because you could be talking about Alexa in other conversations and the smart speaker will disrupt you. Fortunately, the wake word can be muted and this can be done by pressing on the physical mute button that is located on top of the speaker. Pressing the button again will unmute the wake word.
#4 New Wake Word
Since we previously talked about the Alexa wake word, we should also go over the fact that Amazon lets users change the wake word to anything they want. People who are named Alex or even Alexa will love this feature because otherwise, the AI assistant will wake up whenever someone says their name. Changing the wake word can be done by accessing the following options: “Settings – Select Your Echo – Wake Word” and then just pick a new one from the list.
#5 Follow Artists
If you are a big fan of an artist, then you are going to love this tip! The latest update that Alexa received in 2018 made it possible for the AI assistant to start following artists on Amazon Music. So, let’s say that you are a fan of Katy Perry and you want to be notified whenever she releases a new song. You can do this by saying the following sentence: “Alexa, follow “Katy Perry” or “Alexa, let me know when Katy Perry has new music”.
#6 Music Alarm
Don’t you hate waking on Monday mornings? No one likes it, but fortunately, we have a small Echo Dot tip that will make waking up early in the morning more pleasant. This tip involves changing the alarm sound to a song that you like. We advise you to use a song that you don’t like so much so that it can give you the drive you need to get out of the bed and shut down the smart speaker.
#7 Online Shopping
This should come as no surprise since Amazon is the company in charge of the Echo Dot smart speakers, but one of the best uses for Alexa is to go online shopping. Considering that Amazon initially developed Alexa as a way to make people order more items online, no one should be shocked to find out that Echo Dot is equipped with a plethora of features that make it easier to shop online. What’s great about online shopping with Alexa is the fact that the AI assistant will automatically search for specific items and find you the best prices.
#8 How to Get Alexa to Repeat Herself
Did you know that you can get Alexa to repeat herself? This is a trick that most people don’t know about and they end up asking the same question instead of telling Alexa to repeat herself. The only thing that you will need to do in order to get Alexa to repeat an answer is to ask one of the following questions: “Alexa, can you repeat that?” or “Alexa, can you say that again?”. While this might not be a groundbreaking feature by any means, it’s still nice to have it.
Final Words…
These are our top eight tips & tricks for Amazon’s Echo Dot smart speaker. However, Alexa is the world’s most powerful AI assistant and therefore, Alexa comes with hundreds of other features that make it a great household item. With that said, we advise everyone who owns an Echo Dot smart speaker to try and talk to Alexa and see just how much stuff the AI assistant can do.