The days of typing inputs are over. Now virtual assistance is everywhere from Google’s assistance to Amazon’s virtual assistance Alexa. Alexa first used in the Amazon Echo and the Amazon Echo Dot smart speakers. It is very intelligent and of playing audiobooks, music playback, setting alarms, real-time information, voice interaction, making to-do lists, streaming podcasts, and providing weather, news and much more. There is a lot of Alexa commands that can make your life easy. Here is an Alexa commands list.
Do you know about Echo Dot? The smart Amazon device is specially programmed to respond to almost unlimited commands and variations. If you are an Alexa user you must have to know some of the commands or you may remember all the commands.
You can extend the Alexa capabilities and give more power by installing “skills”. There are thousands of individual “skills” you can add to her repertoire. I have collected all the possible Amazon Alexa skills for you. For better understanding, I have organized them by category. Let’s start.
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Alexa commands list
The list of commands is not fixed. It grows with every new device or service or it supports. Virtual assistance Alexa is not perfect. It can understand natural languages. It is mandatory to speak the exact command. You can talk in different ways.
Starting Alexa
First, you have to wake up Alexa. There is a number of ways to do this. The default wake word is “Alexa”. The alternative wake words are Amazon, Echo or Computer.
Some basic commands
Here are some basic commands you may regularly use.
Start a conversation: “Alexa, let’s chat.”
Ask for help: “Alexa, help.”
Stop or pause it: “Alexa, stop” or, “Alexa, shut up.”
Mute or unmute audio: “Alexa, mute” or, “Alexa, unmute.”
Increase or decrease volume: “Alexa, set the volume to 6,” “Alexa, louder” or “Alexa, turn up/down the volume.”
Setting alarms, asking the time, etc.
Echo devices can act as a clock.
Check the time: “Alexa, what time is it?”
Set alarm: “Alexa, set an alarm for 5 am”
Snooze: “Alexa, snooze”
Cancel alarm: “Alexa, cancel my alarm”
Set a music alarm: “Alexa, wake me up to [song, album, artist, and genre] at 6 am.”
Create a named timer: “Alexa, set a puppy timer for 10 minutes”
Check timer status: “Alexa, how much time is left on the puppy timer?”
Cancel a timer: “Alexa, cancel the puppy timer” or “Alexa, cancel the 10-minute timer.”
Repeat the alarm: “Alexa, set a repeating alarm for weekdays at 5 am.”
Set a timer: “Alexa, set a timer for 5 minutes”.
Check how many time left on a timer: “Alexa, how much time left on my timer?”
Check the date: “Alexa, what’s the date”
Check dates: “Alexa, when is [holiday] this year?”
Media controls
Most of the Amazon Echo devices mostly used for playing music. There are some voice commands that make it easy. Here is the list of Alexa commands for media controls.
Play random music: “Alexa, play some music.”(This command randomly plays some music through Amazon’s music services.)
Play songs by artists: “Alexa, play music by [artist],” “Alexa, play latest Justin Beiber”
Queue specific song or artist: “Alexa, play music by [artist].”
Play the next song with “Alexa, next”
Restart the song “Alexa, restart”
Not sure about the song name, you can still play the song: “Alexa, play that song that says ’some line of the song’ ”
Play the song of the day: “Alexa, play the song of the day.”
Play Pandora station: “Alexa, play [artist] station on Pandora.”
Play Spotify music: “Alexa, play on Spotify.”
Play a radio station: “Alexa, play [radio station] on BBC.”
You can like or dislike songs like Pandora. Just say: “Alexa, I like this song” or “Alexa, thumbs down”.
Music controls: “Alexa, play” or “Alexa, next.”
Control music on another Alexa speaker: “Alexa, stop in the drawing room”
Add a song to your Prime Music library: “Alexa, add this song.”
Start Amazon Music Unlimited trial: “Alexa, start my free trial of Amazon Music Unlimited.”
Song information: “Alexa, what’s playing?”
Set a timer: “Alexa, stop playing in 25 minutes.”
Audiobooks
Amazon has a huge collection of e-books on Amazon Kindle store. You can read them by simple commands.
Read a Kindle book: “Alexa, read me my Kindle book.”
Playing some audiobooks: “Alexa, play the book, [title].” or “Alexa, play [title] on Audible,”
resume your reading: “Alexa, resume my book”
Read the next chapter: “Alexa, next chapter”
Read the previous chapter: “Alexa, previous chapter”.
Show
The latest addition to Amazon’s Alexa is the Echo Show. It comes with a touchscreen display. This means just tell and it will show you things. Here is the Alexa commands list of commands for the show.
Movie showtimes: “Alexa, show me movie showtimes.”
Show your calendar: “Alexa, show my calendar.”
Show your saved pictures: “Alexa, show my photos” or, “Alexa, show me pictures of flowers.”
Visualize your timers: “Alexa, show me my timers.”
Open the Uber: “Alexa, open Uber.”
View your cameras connected to it: “Alexa, show the living room camera.”
Display recipes: “Alexa, show me an Apple Crumb Pie recipe from Allrecipes.”
Ask for what the Echo Show can display: “Alexa, what can you show me?”
See your Flash Briefing: “Alexa, play my video Flash Briefing.”
Play YouTube videos: “Alexa, show me funny videos on YouTube.”
View movie trailers: “Alexa, show me the trailer of ‘Infinity War’”
View the forecast: “Alexa, show me the weekend forecast.”
Fire TV
You can now use Echo devices to control your Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Sticks. Amazon also develops its Fire TV operating system into televisions. So there are some TV specific commands also.
Search TV shows or movies: “Alexa, search for [TV show title or movie name] on Fire TV”.
Control Fire TV: “Alexa, [play, pause, rewind, resume, stop, fast-forward,] on Fire TV.”
Find work by a certain actor: “Alexa, show me titles with [actor] on Fire TV.”
Open apps: “Alexa, launch [app name] on Fire TV.”
Return home: “Alexa, return home.”
Turn on or off the TV: “Alexa, turn on Fire TV” or “Alexa, turn off Fire TV.”
Mute Fire TV: “Alexa, [mute/unmute] Fire TV.”
Send current listening to a Fire tablet: “Alexa, send that to my Fire tablet.”
Send to a different profile’s Fire tablet: “Alexa, show this on [name]’s Fire tablet.”
Change the channel when watching an antenna: “Alexa, go to [channel or network name] on Fire TV.”
Open antenna program guide: “Alexa, open TV guide on Fire TV.”
Adjust the volume of Fire TV: “Alexa, set the volume to [level] on Fire TV” or “Alexa, turn [up/down] the volume on Fire TV.”
Change inputs: “Alexa, switch to PlayStation on Fire TV” or “Alexa, switch to HDMI 1 on Fire TV.”
Entertainment
Amazon Echo commands works perfectly for finding information. It can find information about movies, actors, and what’s playing. Here is the list of Alexa commands for entertainment.
Find out who an actor is: “Alexa, who plays [character] in [movie or TV show]?”
Get the names of band members: “Who is in the band [name]?”
Find popular music from an artist: “Alexa, what’s popular [artist]?”
Find movies in nearest theatres: “Alexa, what movies are playing?”
Get some information on movies playing: “Alexa, tell me about the movie [title].”
Get some movie quotes: “Give me a [movie/show] quote.”
Get IMDb rating of a movie: “Alexa, what is the IMDb rating for [movie or TV show]?”
Get casting for a movie or show: “Alexa, who plays in [movie or TV show]?”
Find an actor’s latest movie: “Alexa, what is [actor]’s latest movie?”
Find out the singer of a particular song: “Who sings the song [title]?”
Get album information: “What year did [band] release [song or album]?”
Sample music from an artist: “Alexa, sample songs by [artist].”
Find a particular album or song: “Alexa, find [song or album] by [artist].”
Calls and messaging
Amazon launched calling and messaging between users of its Echo speakers. Another new feature is Drop In. This lets users call different Echo devices throughout your home. If you are using Alexa app no commands are needed. You can directly call and message from the Alexa app.
Play messages: “Alexa, play messages.”
Message another Echo user: “Alexa, send [name] a message.”
Call another Echo user: “Alexa, call [name].”
Answer to an incoming call: “Alexa, answer the call”
Hang up: “Alexa, hang up” or “Alexa, end the call.”
Use Drop In on one of your own Echo devices: “Alexa, drop in on the kitchen.”
Turn off the video during an ongoing call (only in Echo Show): “Turn video off.”
Check Notifications
Now, Alexa supports Amazon shopping notifications. To enable notification,
Open the Alexa app > go to Settings> Notifications > Shopping Notifications and turn on.
Read notifications: “Alexa, read my notifications”
Read next notification: “Alexa, Next”
Check the previous notification: “Alexa, Previous“
Delete all notification: “Alexa, delete all of my notifications”.
Shopping lists & to-do lists
Alexa is awesome assistance for creating to-do and shopping lists as well. Here is the Alexa commands list of shopping and to-do.
Create a to-do list: “Alexa, create a to-do list”
Add event to calendar: “Alexa, add [event] to my calendar for [time/date]”
Add items to your list: “Alexa, add ‘buy food for guinea pig’ to my to-do list”
Add some more items: “Alexa, add milk to my shopping list”
Check shopping list: “Alexa, what’s on my shopping list?”
Show calendar: “Alexa, what’s on my calendar for tomorrow?”
Create a reminder: “Alexa, remind me to check the mail.”
Check on existing reminders: “Alexa, what reminders do I have tomorrow?”
Food
Alexa also helps you to find nearest restaurants and its addresses also.
Find a restaurant near you: “Alexa, find me a nearby [food type] restaurant.” Or “Alexa, what restaurants are near me?”
Find the nearest coffee shop: “Alexa, what’s the nearest coffee shop?”
Get the address: “Alexa, find the address for Target”
Get business hour: “Alexa, find business hours for John’s barber”
Sports
You can get sports updates by giving Alexa commands.
Get sports updates of your favorite sports: “Alexa, give me my Sports Update.”
Ask if a team won: “Alexa, did the [team] win?”
Check the game results: “Alexa, what was the score of the [team] game?”
Ask when the next game is scheduled: “Alexa, when do the [team] play next?”
Get league standings: “Alexa, what are the NBL standings?”
News and weather
Find latest news headline and weather-related information. Just speak these Alexa commands list.
Ask for your Flash Briefing: “Alexa, what’s my Flash Briefing?”
Add music news to your Flash Briefing: “Alexa, enable Today in Music.”
Check headlines: “Alexa, what’s in the news?”
Get traffic updates: “What’s the traffic like?”
Check the weather: “Alexa, what’s the weather like?”
Get a weather forecast: “Alexa, what’s the weather going to be like this weekend?
Do stuff
Do some basic stuff with Alexa.
Pick a number from a range: “Alexa, pick a number between 1 and 50.”
Flip a coin: “Alexa, flip a coin.”
Roll a die: “Alexa, roll a die”
Basic math problems: “Alexa, what’s 5 plus 7?” or “Alexa, what’s 56 times 33?”
Convert units: “Alexa, how many [units] are in [units]?”
Convert units: “Alexa, how many [units] are in 2 [units]?”
Advanced math: “Alexa, 70 factorial.” (Warning: Alexa will list numbers you didn’t know existed for about a minute.)
Get the definition of a word: “Alexa, what’s the definition of [word]?”
Get the spelling of a word: “Alexa, how do you spell [word]?”
Smart home
Yes, you can make a smart home using Alexa. It can integrate with a lot of smart home devices. Alexa can be used to change the color of lights, adjust the temperature, and so much more. Some 3rd party accessories like smart light-bulbs, smart thermostats are required to make this happen.
Here is Alexa commands list to make a smart home.
Turn on lights: “Alexa, turn on the lights”
Turn off lights: “Alexa, turn off the living room lights.”
Change the color of the lights: “Alexa, turn the lights to soft green.”
Change the color temperature of the lights: “Alexa, make the living room lights a little warmer.”
Dim the lights: “Alexa, dim the lights to 40 percent.”
Adjust room temperature: “Alexa, raise the temperature 2 degrees.”
Set temperature: “Alexa, set the temperature to 76.”
Lock your doors: “Alexa, lock my front door.”
Discover smart home devices: “Alexa, discover my devices.”
There is a wide range of commands depending on which smart device you are using.
Profiles and Bluetooth
Check user profiles and connect Bluetooth devices.
Check which profile is active: “Alexa, which profile is this?”
Switch profiles: “Alexa, switch accounts.”
Pair a Bluetooth device: “Alexa, Bluetooth.”
Connect to a Bluetooth device: “Alexa, connect to my phone.”
Disconnect from a Bluetooth device: “Alexa, disconnect from my phone.”
Search on internet
Basic internet searches with Alexa.
Ask a general question: “Alexa, Who is the youngest president of America?”
Search on Wikipedia: “Alexa, Wikipedia: [subject].”
Tell Alexa to continue reading a Wikipedia entry: “Alexa, tell me more.”
Ask a general question: “Alexa, how tall is [object’s name]?”
Easter eggs
There is a ton of Alexa commands full of Easter eggs and jokes. Here is a list of Alexa commands for jokes.
“Alexa, tell me a joke.”
“Alexa, give me an Easter egg.”
“Alexa, good morning.”
“Alexa, nice to see you”
“Alexa, tell me a joke.”
“Alexa, how are you?”
“Alexa, beam me up.”
“Alexa, will you marry me?”
“Alexa, do you think I’m sexy?”
“Alexa, would you like to play a game?”
“Alexa, don’t mention the war.”
“Alexa, what’s the second rule of Fight Club?”
“Alexa, surely you can’t be serious.”
“Alexa, show me the money.”
“Alexa, are you SkyNet?”
“Alexa, what is your cunning plan?”
“Alexa, set phasers to kill.”
“Alexa. Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.”
“Alexa, I want the truth.”
“Alexa, party on, Wayne.”
“Alexa, surely you can’t be serious.”
“Alexa, party time!”
“Alexa, open the pod bay doors.”
“Alexa, when am I going to die?”
“Alexa, what is your quest?”
“Alexa, nice to see you, to see you…”
“Alexa, this is a dead parrot.”
Conclusion
Ah, after a huge list of Alexa commands, we are in the conclusion stage. Alexa virtual assistance makes life more simple. There is no hard and first rule that you have to speak these command exactly the same. You can call the list a “full list” but there are many new Alexa commands being added every day.