Enabling Skills for Alexa is incredibly simple and opens up a whole new range of capabilities. That being said, there are currently over one thousand and five hundred skills available for activation. And with so many to choose from, how do you decide which ones to enable?
In this article, we’re going to give you a brief list of ten Skills that you can enable for Alexa that you might not have heard of yet. Some are more serious while others are more fun, but we hope that you find the list as a whole informative and entertaining.
1. Make a charitable donation. One Skill that most people don’t know about is the one for donating money to charities. All you need to do is say “Alexa, make a donation,” and she will offer a list of organizations to choose from and then as for the specific dollar amount (alternatively, if you already have an amount and group in mind, you can simply state it all at once).
2. Get wine pairings. A fun but lesser known Skill of Alexa’s is her capability as a sommelier; known as MySomm, this ability to triggered by the phrase, “Alexa, ask Wine Gal to recommend a wine to go with -” and then state the food you’ll be eating.
3. Get recipes. There are multiple Skills that can be used for this (two of the more popular providers are Campbell’s and Allrecipes), but the basic idea remains the same. The skill will tell you about some new recipes that you might want to try, and once you select one the details of the recipe will be sent to your Alexa app.
4. Find your lost phone. It happens to all of us: you’re holding your phone one moment, then get distracted and set it down only to forget where exactly you put it when you go to pick it up again. Now, you can ask, “Alex, where’s my phone?” and she’ll be able to tell you where you left it. This particular skill might seem small and insignificant, but it can really come in handy for those stressful moments when you misplace your phone.
5. Tune a guitar. This skill allows you to tune each string of your guitar until it matches the tone Alexa provides. It may seem like a silly skill, but it saves you from the hassle of lugging around a physical tuner (and also from the embarrassment of playing out of tune).
6. Hear your horoscope. This skill will allow Alexa to give you a unique horoscope every day.
7. Get a weather forecast. A useful application for everyone, there are even some versions that can give you very detailed weather forecasts based on your specific location at the time.
8. Learn cocktail recipes. The Bartender skill is incredibly fun and has a database that contains over twelve thousand cocktail recipes.
9. Talk to your cats. The Meow skill will do precisely that: meow and purr at your cats.
10. Get the latest news reports. Whether your preferred news source is NPR, CNN, or BBC, there are Skills out there that can enable Alexa to tell you about the latest headlines.
In this age, voice assistants are now becoming the norm. If you have an Alexa…put her to good use.
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