Alexa- what do you use it for?

[OldMotherHubbardsBigBottom]

I was bought one last year as a present and other than asking it to make rude noises I haven't really used it.

What do you use yours for?

I ask it to "start my day" and it opens the blinds, turns the kettle on, tells me the weather and the time of sunset.
I use it to turn lights on and off, to play music, to play audio books, and to show me recipes etc. I use it to "announce dinner" when dinner is ready. And then for all the games. The kids love the magic door. Probably some other random things.

Ours controls the heating and makes fart jokes. A lot. Hopefully soon it'll control the TV as well, and can't wait for the oven and microwave to come over to these shores from the US.

Mostly to play music and radio and we set lots of reminders.
We have a shopping list that the kids can add to. It’s just a normal list that I can see on the app when I go to the supermarket.
The kids entertain themselves by play pointless, riddles and asking her for cat and fart noises and if she smells.
She also controls a lamp so we can just ask her to switch it on and off. It’s actually really good for when we’re out or away and want it to look like someone is in.
Lots of things really but nothing we can’t do without.

I need to investigate it more don't I!

For those of you that have Alexa set up to do housey things, is it all linked together by something like Hive? Is that similar to Google Home? I've never really dipped my toe into the world of technological domesticity so I feel like I have lots to catch up on.

Could Alexa add things to a wish list in Amazon? (Yay) Or would it go straight into my basket? (Boo)

Freek my cats out with meows
Listen to music
Listen to audiobooks
Play quizzes
Listen to jokes
And yes, listen to her fart

Music
Entertain GC
Run the Heating & Lighting
Timers & Alarms
Control TV & AV
Calculator
Check if people in TV programs are still alive and if so, how old?

Shopping list. The kids never would add things to the chalkboard but they like telling Alexa......

Cooking timer and to find things on Prime video.

We play Pointless the quiz here, not a full on Richard and Xander experience unfortunately but fun nonetheless

Fuck all these days since I can't play radio 2 on it anymore 😢

I unplugged it. Pointless annoyance.

Both my teenage children have one and listen to music in it, and use them to turn in lights. My sons has a google home and can also use it to operate his tv with his cromecast.

I use it as an alarm, to listen to music and to operate lights.

Funnily enough I've just said to my DP do you remember when you asked if we could get an Alexa and I said no because they listen all the time....... Yeah well now we have 7! We don't have 7 rooms in the house.
They are handy for timers.

For streaming music and listening to the radio. For white noise (ocean waves) when I'm trying to sleep. To listen to the radio (especially to catch up on the archers ). To check the time, and to set alarms, timers and reminders. To listen to audible books. To switch the bedroom light on and off. As an intercom to talk to my daughter when she is upstairs. To check random facts. To translate random words and phrases. To play trivia type quiz games. To get daily "inspire me" clips. To get the word of the day. To check the weather. To make lists. To check my calendar. Occasionally to call my mum. And probably other stuff.

We use ours all the time tbh.

To tell us the weather each morning and a random fact about the day like "on this day in 1867" for example. And music.

@Leafyhouse

You can get smart ovens and jobs which work with Alexa. I've recently ordered one.

@feelinghelplesstoday

mine still plays Radio 2, I just went and asked it to be sure, it plays most UK stations

We have two, one in the kitchen and one in the bedroom.

Kitchen: music / radio, timers, facts / questions.

Bedroom: audio books, alarms.

We have Alexa and Google home. We use Alexa for audible books and not much else. Google home is much more reliable and user friendly. The GH app is much more efficient than the Alexa one too.

We use the GH for listening to the radio, picking random songs to listen to, podcasts, checking the time, weather, news, doing quizzes, writing lists, using recipes. All sorts really.

Fuck all these days since I can't play radio 2 on it anymore
Why not? We can.

We use them as an intercom between rooms, most of our rooms have an echo dot in them. Or we make announcements to all the rooms that have them. It's much better than shouting "dinners ready" at the top of your voice. We also play music, ask how many sleeps until Xmas, add items to our shopping list and we stream our photos on our echo show. We love them!

Alexa dot. It has mainly replaced the digital radio (I listen to the radio a lot). I also use it to connect to Bluetooth for for Spotify, podcasts and Audible and to ask the time when I wake up in the night. I bought it in the Black Friday sale last year for about £25 and at that price I am pretty happy with it. My first DAB radio (still going strong) was over £100!

Oh I forgot, I also use it to listen to the news and have made a couple of phone calls using it.

Heating, lighting, doorbell (answering / spying on who is at the door so I know if I want to answer), intercom in the house, video chat with DD at uni, searching and playing stuff on TV, alarms, timers, music, hoovering, switching plugs on and off for various things. DS harasses it with maths / minecraft questions and likes it to read him bedtime stories.
Lots of stuff is set on routines so "Alexa, I'm home" for example will put certain lights on, set the heating to 20, turn the TV and kettle on.

In our house connected to Alexa(s) we have:
Lifx bulbs (colour change / dimmable)
Nest thermostat
Eufy robo vacuum
Mostly amazon smart plugs (because I dont like using the 2.4ghz network that most plugs seem to use)
Couple of Fire Sticks (let's Alexa search and play shows on the TV)
Sonos speakers
Ring doorbell
We have a smart things hub although I'm not really sure if anythings actually using it anymore, I've never bothered with the motion / temperature sensors that came with it because they run on batteries and it seemed faffy.

Alexa does have some sort of control of the TV anyway (Samsung) but I don't really use that because of the fire stick and I think the xbox? But I don't use that so no idea.

Try whispering something to Alexa. It's super creepy.

We have a google home and use it for:

• playing music
• asking the time / date
• turning lights on and off
• turning the tv on and off
• asking it questions
• setting timers
• adding reminders to calendars

I love it just for being able to turn the lights on and off without having to get out of bed!