Lesson 2 – Essential Alexa Commands
Essential Alexa Commands
There are many Alexa commands for many different types of people. Now that you know how to summon and command Alexa, we can start to explore Alexa’s capabilities. Our goal is to present a list of essential Alexa commands that most older adults will find useful and even fun.
In the video, we will demonstrate a number of our favorites. To explore more, move down to Our Favorite Alexa Commands below.
Our Favorite Alexa Commands
Remember the three step process for making an Alexa request. 1) Summon with “Alexa”, 2) Command and 3) Response.
Here are some tips:
- Say Alexa and remember to pause a little until your tablet displays Alexa’s blue status bar.
- Be assertive and specific with your command.
- Practice using the examples we provide.
Here are a few categories of Alexa commands. Click on the category to jump to that section:
Alexa Operations
Here are some essential operations to perform with Alexa.
| Summon | Command | Response |
| Alexa, | Stop | An important command to make her quiet and stop whatever action she is performing. |
| Alexa, | Softer or Louder | Control her audio volume. You can also use the tablet’s up and down volume controls. |
Information
Alexa is great at providing information whether it is the date, time news, weather and more. Here are some examples to get your started:
| Summon | Command | Response |
| Alexa, | What day is it? | Today is day,month, year. |
| Alexa, | What time is it? | The time is yy:mm pm. |
| Alexa, | What is today’s (or tomorrow’s) weather? | Respond with current conditions and forecast display. |
| Alexa, | What’s in the news? | Alexa plays a broadcast of news. |
Trivia
Alexa excels at trivia. It has to be pretty obscure for Alexa not to find an answer for questions like:
| Summon | Command | Response |
| Alexa, | What is the population of Minnesota? | Audio answer plus screen display. |
| Alexa, | How old is Michael Douglas? (you can ask for any well known person.) | Michael Douglas is 79 years old. |
| Alexa, | Who is married to Carrie Underwood? (you can ask for any well known person.) | Carrie Underwood is married to Mike Fisher ……… |
| Alexa, | Who was the 39th president of the United States. | Jimmy Carter is the 39th President of the United States. |
| Alexa, | Who stars in the movie “A Few Good Men?” | A list of the movie’s stars…… |
| Alexa, | Is “Dancing with the Stars” a good television show? | Hmmmmm. |
Organization
Alexa can help you stay organized with reminders, alarms and timers. You can use the timer for cookings. You can ask it to remind you to take your meds at a certain time every day. Here are some examples:
| Summon | Command | Response |
| Alexa, | Set a timer for 20 (any any number) minutes. | Display a countdown and sound an alarm at the end. Tap Stop to end the alarm. |
| Alexa, | Set an alarm for 6:35 AM. | Alexa will ask you if you want to set this alarm for everyday. You can respond yes or no. When the alarm sounds you can either tap Stop or Snooze to snooze the alarm for ten minutes. |
| Alexa, | Remind me to take my meds at 11 AM every day | Alexa will set a daily alarm to remind you. |
Entertainment and Fun
Alexa has a fun side and a quirky sense of humor. Here are some Alexa commands for your entertainment:
| Summon | Command | Response |
| Alexa, | Tell me a joke. | Often a silly dad joke. |
| Alexa, | Sing me a song. | Alexa will sing you a song. Say Alexa Stop to end any silliness. |
| Alexa, | Knock know | The famous kid joke. |
| Alexa, | Play 20 questions. | Alexa will ask you to think of an animal and it will proceed to ask questions that you answer. |
| Alexa, | Roll a dice | She will give her random answer. |
| Alexa, | Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo? | She will recite Shakespeare. |
| Alexa, | Sing Happy Birthday. | You know what she will sing. |
| Alexa, | I farted. | Hmmmmmm |
Radio
You can use Alexa to play your favorite radio station.
To play a radio station, identify the station with the frequency and name, for example, AM 830 WCCO.
| Summon | Command | Response |
| Alexa, | Play radio station: [AM/FM frequency] and [call sign] In some cases you can use a more common name but a specific frequency and call sign will almost always work. | Here is a list of popular stations in the Minneapolis area: AM 830 WCCO FM 88.5 KBEM (Jazz 88) FM 91.1 KNOW (MPR News) FM 99.5 KSJN (MPR Classical Music) FM 101.3 KDWB FM 107.9 KQQL (KOOL 108) FM 100.3 FXFM-FM (KFAN Sports Talk and broadcasts ) FM 97.1 KTCZ-FM (Cities 97.1) |
There is much more to explore with Alexa. Go to Alexa Links and Resources to explore more Alexa topics.
After completing your homework, you are ready to explore other courses on your tablet. Tap the Go to Courses to explore more courses.