Alexa App

Description

Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant lives primarily in Echo smart speakers and smart displays — devices that sit on countertops and respond to the wake word. The Alexa app connects to those devices and takes care of the setup and configuration that can’t occur through voice alone, and extends Alexa’s capabilities to Android and iOS phones as both a remote control for the smart home as well as a voice assistant in its own right.

A user setting up a new Echo speaker, configuring a Zigbee smart bulb, building a multi-room audio group or reviewing what Alexa heard and said during the day all does that through the Alexa app. The app also allows users to communicate directly with Alexa on their phone when they’re away from any Echo device, access Alexa’s shopping and to-do lists, and control the routines that automate actions across their smart home.

FEATURES

Device Setup and Management

The Alexa app is used for the setup process of Echo devices and Alexa-compatible smart home products. Adding a new Echo speaker guides you through connecting the device to a Wi-Fi network, assigning it to a room and configuring wake word preferences. The Devices tab displays all the Echo devices and smart home products associated with the Amazon account, and is broken down by room. Users configure device settings — equalizer, wake word sensitivity, Do Not Disturb schedules and communications permissions — from the device detail screen in the app.

Smart Home Control

The smart home dashboard shows lights, locks, thermostats, plugs, cameras and sensors through Alexa. Users control devices individually through the app — dimming a light, locking a door, adjusting a thermostat — or controlling groups of devices in a single tap. Adding smart home devices from Alexa compatible brands is carried out using the app’s device discovery, which takes care of the authentication flow for third-party smart home platforms such as Philips Hue, Ring, SmartThings, and ecobee.

Routines

Routines automate sets of actions that are triggered by a time, a voice command, a device event, or a location. A morning routine could turn on lights at a specific brightness and announce the weather and start a playlist when triggered at 7:00 AM. A departure routine triggered by the phone leaving the home geofence might lock the front door, turn off all lights and drop the thermostat. Routine builders in the app put triggers and actions together using a visual editor without any code being required.

Alexa Voice on Phone

The app has a microphone button that takes the user to Alexa directly on the phone. Users can ask Alexa questions, set reminders, control smart home devices, add items to shopping lists, and check timers from the phone when no Echo device is nearby. The phone Alexa session is linked to the same account as home Echo devices, so a reminder set through the phone shows on Echo devices and vice versa.

Lists and Shopping

Alexa’s shopping list and to-do list is synced between the app and all Echo devices on the account. Items added verbally to Alexa on an Echo speaker will appear in the app. Items added in the app will be available to read aloud by any Echo on the account. The shopping list has integration with Amazon’s shopping platform, meaning one can add items to an Amazon cart from the shopping list.

Activity Log and Voice History

The Activity section records all of the interactions with Alexa: What was the wake word activation, what did Alexa hear, which Skill or capability responded to the input, and what was Alexa’s response. Users review this log to check what Alexa understood and also identify commands that were misheard and remove certain recordings. Amazon’s privacy settings, available through the app, control the length of time voice recordings are kept, and whether or not voice recordings are used to improve Alexa’s recognition.

Skills

Alexa Skills are extensions of the assistant’s capabilities that are created through third-party integrations. The Skills store in the app organizes Skills by category — games, productivity, smart home, fitness, news — and handles enabling and configuration for Skills that require account linking. Enabled Skills are skills that are listed in the account and enabled by voice commands on any Alexa device.

Communication

The Alexa app supports voice and video calling to other Alexa app users and other Echo devices with screens. A feature called Drop In, which connects instantly to another Echo device without the recipient having to answer, is useful for household intercom use between rooms.