[fb-exchange] Who (or What) Is Alexa? We Explain Amazon's Digital Assistant

From: "Dominique Farrell" <hollyandopal@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <iphone_newbees@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 10 Dec 2019 12:12:25 -0000

Amazon Alexa is a versatile digital assistant that answers questions and
performs all sorts of tasks. Here's what you need to know.

Alexa, Amazon's virtual personal assistant, has been around for about two
years, and it keeps getting smarter. It lives inside the company's Echo
smart speaker
<https://www.tomsguide.com/us/amazon-echo-bluetooth-speaker,review-2951.html

, among other devices, and offers users the ability to dictate commands to

the assistant to control products throughout their home, listen to music,
and more.  As time has gone on, Amazon has added "Skills" to Alexa and made
the virtual assistant far more powerful. And although Amazon says more
people are using Alexa each year, many are still unfamiliar with the
service.

We've compiled the following FAQ to help you learn more about Alexa and how
it might be able to help you in your daily life.

Q. Who (or what) is Alexa?

A. Alexa is a virtual personal assistant designed to compete with the likes
of Apple's Siri, Google Now, and others. Alexa, which was designed by
Amazon's secretive Lab126, can listen to your voice commands and respond
with contextual responses to help you get the job done. Alexa can help you
listen to tracks on Spotify, create to-do lists, shop, and even control your
smart home products, like Google's Nest thermostat or the Philips Hue.

Alexa was popularized by the Amazon Echo, a device that acts both as a
speaker and a smart-home hub, but also works on many other devices.

Like other virtual assistants, Alexa has its fair share of trouble
understanding user commands and responding accurately. However, because it's
a cloud-based service, Amazon is continually updating Alexa's intelligence
to overcome some challenges. As machine learning becomes more sophisticated,
look for Alexa to become more intelligent.

Q. What devices does Alexa work on?

A. Amazon Alexa perhaps delivers the best experience on the Amazon Echo.
However, Amazon also has brought the smart assistant to other home hubs,
such as the Echo Dot and the Tap. Amazon's Fire TV set-top box and Fire HD 8
tablet also support Alexa.  As part of its effort to broaden Alexa's appeal,
Amazon also has allowed some third parties to support Alexa. For instance,
the LG SmartThinQ hub and the Pebble Core wearable come with Alexa support.
An intercom called the Nucleus Anywhere also can support Alexa, and there's
a smartwatch called CoWatch that has Alexa integration.

Q. What can you tell me about the Alexa companion app?

A. The Alexa companion app is central to the Amazon Alexa experience. The
app - which is available in Apple's App Store, the Google Play store and the
Amazon Appstore - is a must for the best Alexa experience. The app lets
Alexa users control music, create or view to-do lists, see recent activity,
and more.  Perhaps most important, the companion app is the place to add
more Skills to expand Alexa's appeal. The app lists the many, many Skills
available to Alexa and lets you add them to the service. Once you do that,
Alexa will have the available Skills regardless of where you're using the
service.  The companion app isn't required for you to use Alexa. But it
rounds out the experience, so you really should consider it.

Q. What are Alexa Skills?

A. Alexa Skills extend the virtual assistant's appeal. The Skills are
offered from both Amazon and third-party developers, and act as virtual apps
to expand Alexa's features.  Skills can span many industries, including
sports, entertainment, news and social media. There's no limit to the number
of Skills users can add, but it can be challenging to keep track of their
features and remember to use ones you added several months ago. Luckily, the
Alexa companion app lists all of the Skills you've downloaded, so you can
quickly refer to them and see what commands are available.  Currently, there
are more than 3,000 Alexa Skills for users to download from both Amazon and
third-party providers. The Skills are available for free in the mobile
companion app or online via Amazon's Alexa portal.

Q. What kinds of Skills are available?

A. With Alexa's help (and after you add Skills), you can request a car
through ride-sharing service Lyft. On the sports side, you can use Alexa to
get the latest scores from your Yahoo Fantasy Football team or see who's
winning the big game with professional sports radio broadcasts, like those
from Major League Baseball.  Skills also allow you to listen to radio
stations, play trivia games, get lyrics support from Lyrical and much more.
You can also use Alexa to get news updates, find out how your stocks are
performing and, of course, control all facets of your smart home through
apps such as SmartThings.

Q. Can Alexa deliver entertainment?

A. Arguably Alexa's best slate of features comes in the entertainment
sphere. Out of the box, Alexa works with a wide range of entertainment
services, like Amazon's Prime Music, Audible audiobooks and Spotify, among
others. With help from Skills, you can add in other entertainment features,
like the ability to create your own jukebox.  However, to fully enjoy
entertainment through Alexa, which can be told what to play and when, you'll
need an attached speaker. That can come in the form of Amazon's Echo or with
speakers attached to a device such as the Amazon Echo Dot.

Q. How does Alexa integrate with my smart home?

A. Alexa can be a useful tool for controlling your smart home. In fact,
Alexa connects to popular smart-home services such as WeMo, Google's Nest
and the Philips Hue.  With those apps, you can control your smart-home
products, change the temperature in your home, set the lighting and much
more. As with entertainment (and every other Skill), you can simply ask
Alexa to make changes to your smart home devices. It's a neat feature that
makes Alexa very convenient.

Q. Can Alexa make me more organized?

A. With Alexa's help, you can find out what's on your Google Calendar. It's
also possible to set up new events and find out what traffic is like around
a particular location so you can plan your trip. Add that to the ability to
create a to-do list and keep track of your shopping list, and Alexa earns
its name as a smart virtual assistant.

Q. Is Alexa multilingual?

A. If you're hoping to talk to Alexa in multiple languages, you might be
disappointed. Amazon's Alexa currently supports only English, and it's
unclear when other languages might be supported. However, Amazon has hinted
that more language support will be offered in the future.

Q. Who are Alexa's competitors?

A. What if you want to get the same kinds of features Alexa offers but you
don't necessarily want Amazon's option? Luckily for you, there are several
other similar voice assistants.

Apple devices, for instance, come with Siri, another virtual personal
assistant that can help you boot up apps, listen to music, create to-do
lists and much more. The same can be said for Microsoft's Cortana and Google
Now - two other virtual assistants that can do many of the things Alexa can.

Google is also promoting a new service called Google Assistant that expands
its focus on machine learning to help you in your daily life. You'll find
Google Assistant inside the new Pixel phone.  If you're interested in the
integration of a virtual assistant and smart-home device such as the Echo,
check out Google Home, a newer smart-home device that can control your
lights and thermostat, and help you stay organized.  Regardless of the
option you choose, the major Alexa competitors rely on the cloud and machine
learning to help you stay productive. So, like Alexa, the services are
expected to get better as time goes on.

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[fb-exchange] Who (or What) Is Alexa? We Explain Amazon's Digital Assistant

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