Alexa What is the Amazon voice assistant and what is it for?

Amazon is a gigantic trading company, but another of the great services that it also offers and that many may not know about is cloud computing, this lately is becoming his real deal.

Thanks to this, other derivative services arise that are based on storage systems, among them is the technology that we are going to be evaluating in this article.

So if you want to know a little about Amazon Alexa and how to get the most out of it to this excellent virtual assistant, stay with us until the end.

What is Amazon Alexa and what is this virtual voice assistant for?

Alexa is an electronic and intelligent voice assistant, that allows its users to control several external devices or make multiple queries through voice commands. These orders are received by a small device called “Echo”, which is a speaker that implements Alexa technology perfectly.

This device tracks the user’s voice until it is activated by saying the word “AleXa”. The letter “X” forms very strong and therefore rare consonants, allowing this speaker to immediately recognize that the user is addressing it.

This technology works by communicating directly with Amazon’s cloud servers, which guarantees us an excellent service. Some of the functions of said smart assistant:

• You can make purchases online at Amazon.
• Make queries on the Internet and get an immediate and narrated response.
• Make inquiries about the weather and forecast.
• Order fast food from the nearest food franchises that provide this service.
• Quickly find directions on the road while on the go.
• Communicate with your contacts through calls and messages.
• Check the latest news on any specific topic.
• Sync your calendar to receive notifications about alarms, reminders and events.
• Home devices can be controlled.

On what devices can we use the Alexa assistant?

As we already mentioned, this technology is capable of connecting with other devices in the house that are linked to a smart home network, which connect directly with the Amazon Echo smart speakers. Therefore, you can turn on and off light bulbs; turn security cameras on and off, as well as activate the display on the computer, television or mobile; open and close doors; and even turn on appliances.

Usually works well with appliances from the Amazonbasics line:

• Microwave
• Wall Clock
• surveillance cameras
• Smart plugs.
• thermostats

Amazon has reached various agreements with multiple companies of household appliances, automobiles, televisions, smartphones, and even with Windows to reach many computers. There are also some variants of the Echo device that are compatible with this virtual assistant.

• Plus Echo: It allows you to better control home devices.

• Spot Echo: This model is adaptable to all rooms in your home.

• dot echo: Allows you to enjoy smart assistant services in a more elegant design.

• Echo Link: It is a device that makes it easy for you to manage music anywhere in your house.

What features make Alexa a unique voice assistant?

Now we will see some of the aspects that allow Alexa to be among the best virtual assistants.

• One of the unique features of this technology is the ability to adapt to new functions with just the installation of a Skill.
• We can also add the controllability that this assistant has over the other devices it syncs with.
• And one last unique e of Alexa is the ability to make purchases Internet, specifically in the giant Amazon store.

Alexa Skills What are they and what are the best we can install?

A skill is simply an application that can be installed on Alexa to expand the possibilities of things that can be done. This term refers to the abilities that can be added to this wizard just by downloading and installing them.

Usually a skill is a package of functions that all work together for something specific, where each one obeys the requirements of certain external companies that are the ones that create them.

For example, if you buy a new smart appliance like a fridge, which tells you what products you have stored. In the moments that you are in the supermarket you ask Alexa from your mobile, what is left in the refrigerator to know what you need.

The only way you can receive a correct answer is if the assistant has the skill for that appliance installed. To get hold of any of these Skills, all you have to do is enter the Amazon store, from the application of said assistant and look for the one that meets our needs.

Let’s see which are the best we can get for Amazon’s smart assistant:

If you browse through the 23 categories of Amazon Skills you will realize that those preferred by users are those of food recipes, Well, who doesn’t want to improve their culinary art from their kitchen just by asking a few questions?

Cookpad

With this skill you can consult any recipe and receive the instructions narrated from beginning to end, and with the possibility of pausing while you perform a step.

Track By Nutritionix

This Skill allows you to record everything you consume during the day for later calculate calories and take care of your figure.

My Chef

This allows you to receive all the necessary instructions to make delicious dishes In your home.

Now among the highlights we have others of varied themes, let’s see:

Escape Room

basically it is a game that makes a very good replica of the movie Escape Room, where you must follow certain clues to escape from a room.

Bamboo

This guides you at all times when it comes to do your meditation for the day, and is excellent for setting the right atmosphere for this activity.

TP-Link Kasa

With this ability you will have in your Echo the total control over security cameras, lights and switches that are part of this network.

Time

apart from receiving weather forecasts successful with this ability, we can also know the news of the moment.

protect my house

This ability allows Amazon’s virtual assistant to start produce realistic sounds inside your home, with the intention of appearing that there are people and thus scare away ill-intentioned people.

clan tales

enjoy more than 100 entertaining stories for your free time or to de-stress.

Comparison between Alexa vs Ok Google vs Siri Which one is better and how are they different?

The companies Apple and Google have also opened up to the possibility of reaching many places with their virtual assistants, launching devices similar to the Echo. These are Google Home and Apple Homepod. But, in this case we are not going to evaluate them in this comparison. Although we must use their physical characteristics to identify strengths between one and the other.

Among the most basic differences we can find that your activation mode It is with different words.
While in one you must pronounce “Hey Siri” in another you must say “OK Google”, and in Alexa it is enough to just say “Alexa, Amazon or Echo”

But, let’s see in the following comparative table what are the noticeable differences in each of them.

Characteristic	Siri	Ok Google	Alexa
device access	Being an Apple product, the teams you can work with are smaller in number.	In the case of Google, it does not have as many agreements, so the number of devices with which this assistant is compatible is more limited to mobile phones.	Thanks to the Skills Alexa has a greater field of devices with which to synchronize.
Voice Recognition	The Apple device has 6 microphones for tracking, so we can say that its service is excellent in any room.	The Google device comes out less favored in this comparison, since it only has 2 microphones for the recognition of our orders and questions.	In the standard Echo device, the minimum number of microphones is 7, thus far exceeding the capacity of attention that the client receives.
audio quality	In the case of Siri, it is the one with the best sound component integrated into the Homepod.	The quality of Google is relatively good, but at the moment lower than that of Amazon.	The Amazon device has a 100mm woofer audio system with 7 tweeters, which places it second in this measurement.
satisfactory answers	The ecosystem in which Apple operates on point is usually smaller, because its response capacity is limited by the many devices it can control.	Because Google has the largest database of all on this topic, Ok Google is capable of answering more complex questions and commands, which is why it is in the best position in this evaluation.	Meanwhile, Echo at this point can only respond according to the Skills she has installed, being a bit more limited at first at this point.

To reach a conclusion, we can also add that Echo is much cheaper than Google Home or Apple Homepod, and seeing the large number of Skills that it has that exceeds 20,000, in addition to the thousands of companies that support Amazon with their devices , we decided to lean heavily towards Echo and Alexa.