“Alexa, turn on the lights.”
In my home, that’s one of the most common phrases you’ll hear. With a full smart lighting setup all linked to the Amazon Alexa platform and two Echo Show 15s serving as hubs (one in my office, one in the kitchen), the voice assistant is a core part of how I handle everything from lights to groceries.
Most people know about those functions. Making a to-do list, checking the weather, and other day-to-day tasks are how Alexa is used most often, but did you realize the platform has a litany of powerful, lesser-known features?
Show and Tell
Show and Tell uses the Echo Show’s camera to identify products and audibly announce what it is. Aimed at users with impaired vision, Show and Tell is most often used to identify daily items like pantry staples, especially those with labels. For example, it can help distinguish between a container of cumin and a container of cinnamon.
Just say, “Alexa, what am I holding?” or “What’s in my hand?” Your device will guide you through how and where to hold the item, with sound cues to indicate when you have positioned it correctly in front of the camera.
Eye Gaze
Most interactions with smart assistants are done through vocal commands, but a new feature called Eye Gaze allows users to control specific Alexa devices with only eye movements. This feature benefits people with vocal or mobility impairments, allowing them to trigger pre-set Alexa actions entirely hands and voice free.
For now, Eye Gaze is only available on the Fire Max 11 Tablet, and only in a few countries. It’s still relatively early in development, but Amazon hopes to bring the functionality to more devices in the future.
Real-Time Translation
While most people stick to their phones for making video calls, you can also use Alexa to chat with relatives, and she will put captions on the screen in real-time. That makes it possible to hold conversations in multiple languages at the same time, with both sides understanding the other.
It also provides assistance to the hearing impaired, as real-time call captions make it easier to follow along if you aren’t sure what the other person said. All you have to do is enable call captioning in the Alexa app or in the Echo Show device menu.
Adaptive Listening
Users that struggle with speech impairments might find they can’t get the commands out fast enough for Alexa. Adaptive Listening is a feature that extends Alexa’s listening window before processing the request, and it can turned on within the Alexa app or through specific Echo devices.
Even people without speech difficulties report utilizing the feature, as it creates a more natural flow to the conversation versus the sometimes clipped language used when speaking with a voice assistant.
Find Your Phone
I’m scatterbrained, and I will often put my phone down and completely forget where it is. When it comes time to leave the house for any reason, cue a Yakety Sax montage of me checking under couch cushions, the top of bookshelves, and anywhere else I might have left it.
Now I can just say, “Alexa, find my phone.” The device starts a call, and I can listen for the sound of its vibration in the room (my phone has been on vibrate for years). There are also several Alexa Skills available that do the same thing, though I find the default feature works well enough.
Whisper Mode
When it’s two o’clock in the morning and you just managed to get the baby back to sleep, the last thing you want is to ask Alexa a question in a normal tone of voice and wake the baby. Whisper Mode, once enabled, will let you whisper to Alexa and she will respond back in a whisper automatically. The device matches your volume, so you don’t need to ask it to respond quietly.
Just make sure you enable the setting first. It isn’t on by default, and whispering, “Alexa, what time is?” only to receive an answer of “IT IS 11:55 PM” at full volume can be jarring, to say the least.
Emergency Assist
For years, fans wanted Amazon to add the ability for Alexa to call 911. While that still isn’t possible, the Alexa Emergency Assist function can put users in touch with a trained “Urgent Response” agent who can dispatch emergency services. The downside? This feature requires a subscription of $5.99 a month, or $59 per year.
Without a subscription, you can have a single emergency contact. With Alexa Emergency Assist, you can have up to 25. It also enables other features and listens for the sound of glass breaking (like a window), carbon monoxide and smoke alarms, and more.
Alexa has long been one of the most popular platforms for smart home users, and it only gets better with time. Of course, locking certain features behind a paywall with the Alexa+ subscription slowed its growth, but that’s an argument for another day.
