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More Than Just Weather and Music
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More Than Just Weather and Music

200 Ways to Use Alexa

Bradley Metrock
Score Publishing, 2019
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Editorial Rating

7

Qualities

  • Applicable
  • Eye Opening
  • Engaging

Recommendation

Alexa – Amazon’s personal assistant AI – has become ubiquitous in the half decade since the company introduced its Echo smart speakers. And developers have extended Alexa’s capabilities by creating roughly 100,000 Alexa apps – called “skills.” Yet Alexa remains underutilized: Most users haven’t discovered the wealth of skills available, and music and weather remain Alexa’s dominant uses. To remedy this situation, Bradley Metrock – CEO of Score Publishing, executive producer of the VoiceFirst Events series and host of the podcast This Week in Voice – presents a compendium of 200 useful, innovative and entertaining Alexa skills. For everyday users, Metrock offers an eye-opening introduction to new uses for Alexa, and for developers, his e-book provides valuable information and inspiration.

Summary

Voice is becoming a primary way users interact with technology.

People have always relied on the human voice to communicate – so it’s natural that people want to interact with technology that way. Alexa – Amazon’s personal assistant AI – offers thousands of apps called “skills,” which let you work and play with technology using your voice. Innovative skills are creating entirely new ways for technology to assist users in daily life – for example, Alexa’s built-in Show and Tell skill. Designed for users who have vision impairments, the skill allows the user to hold a product up to the camera of an Echo Show and Alexa will recognize and describe the item.

Most people are currently using Alexa only for a few basic purposes, such as listening to music and checking the weather. But the helpful skills that both Amazon and third parties are developing – along with Amazon’s commitment to Alexa – suggest that users will be talking to technology more and more. Some skills come built-in to Alexa, and users may only need to enable them via the app; many more skills are becoming available from third-party developers for installation through the Skill Store. Users...

About the Author

Bradley Metrock is CEO of Score Publishing, executive producer of the Voice First Events series and host of the podcast This Week in Voice.

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