amazon Alexa

what is Alexa???

Amazon’s Alexa-controlled Echo speaker, now in its second generation and with several derivative versions available, continues to expand its music, smart-home, and digital-assistant abilities. It’s first a wireless speaker, but capable of much more. Using nothing but the sound of your voice, you can play music, search the Web, create to-do and shopping lists, shop online, get instant weather reports, and control popular smart-home products—all while your smartphone stays in your pocket.

 

Alexa (named after the ancient library of Alexandria) is Amazon’s voice-control system. It lets you speak your wishes to an Echo smart speaker and see them fulfilled—at least simple ones, like dimming your lights or playing music tracks. This guide covers how it all works, what it’s capable of doing (and where it still falls short), privacy concerns you may have, and how to pick the right Echo for your home. (We also have separate guides to the best Alexa-compatible devices and how Echo compares to Google Home.) What sets Alexa and Echo apart from first-generation voice assistants is responsiveness. There’s no activation button to press. Simply say the trigger word (either “Alexa,” “Echo,” “Amazon,” or “Computer”) followed by what you want to happen, and it will usually be done—as long as you’ve set up everything properly and are using the correct command. Once you get used to the quirks, using Alexa feels much more natural and responsive than speaking to a phone-based voice assistant like Apple’s Siri. As a result, you’ll likely find yourself using your phone less frequently when you’re at home.