What is Alexa? See What Alexa Can and Can’t Do

This concise article explains “What is Alexa?”, what you can do with Alexa, and the devices on which you can do it.

What is Alexa?

• Alexa is a voice-control system similar which allows you to control Amazon’s Echo, Echo Dot, and Fire devices using only your voice, which allows you to play music, check the weather, and do thousands of other things hands-free.
• Alexa is found on the Echo, Echo Dot, Fire TV, FireStick, and Fire tablets.  In answering “What is Alexa?”, this should help clear up “Where is Alexa found?” or “On what devices is Alexa found?”.
• There are different “flavors” or “versions” of Alexa, depending on what device you’re using (Echo Dot, FireStick, or Fire tablet).  Currently, Alexa for Echo and Echo Dot does not communicate with Alexa on Fire TV / Fire TV Stick.  Although Alexa for Echo and Echo Dot does communicate with Alexa on other Echo’s or Echo Dot’s.  So, yes, you can place several Echo Dots around your house to have a whole-home wireless speaker and voice-control system.  And they’ll all sync up with each other quite perfectly.  The harmony of two Echo Dots working in tandem is a great thing, once you’ve got it!

What Can I Do With Alexa?

• Play music services like Pandora, TuneIn, Spotify, and iHeartRadio with voice commands like “Alexa, play Tool on Pandora”.  If you find yourself pondering “What is Alexa good for?” – much of the answer lies in Alexa music services.
• With Alexa you can ask simple questions like “Alexa, what time is it in Phoenix?” or “What’s the weather like in Sydney Australia?”
• Control Philips Hue Lights to be any color of the spectrum (for Philips Hue COLOR bulbs, which are $50 on Amazon for the 3rd generation bulbs)
• Use hundreds of Alexa skills, which are Amazon’s version of “apps” that work with Alexa.  Alexa skills can be added using the Alexa app.

What Can’t I Do With Alexa?

• You can’t directly use Alexa voice commands to search YouTube, but you can pair an Android / iPhone with Alexa via Bluetooth then use Google or Siri’s voice commands to search YouTube and play videos / music through whatever speakers to which your Echo / Echo Dot is connected.  Boom!  Check out our Alexa Music tutorial video for more info on how to set up Alexa music services.
• Also, Alexa won’t let you dial phone numbers via Alexa voice commands.  But once again, you can pair an Android device or iOS device with Alexa via Bluetooth and then use Google / Siri voice commands to dial a phone number, such as 911 for emergencies.

Wrap Up

Check out our Alexa tutorial videos on the KFire YouTube Channel!  We show you how to set up Alexa music service like Pandora and even how to control Philips Hue lights with Alexa voice commands.  We also do at least 1 new Gadget Giveaway every week – so subscribe to our YouTube channel so you don’t miss out!