15 things you must try with Amazon’s new Echos

Whether it’s the new Echo, revamped Plus or an existing Dot, here are 15 things you must try with whichever of Amazon’s voice-controlled speakers you own

Ordered a new Amazon Echo? Already got one you don’t get the most out of? No matter which vessel Alexa calls home in your house, these are the 15 things you have to try with your voice-controlled companion.

1. Stay in the know

Alexa’s most obvious function is to answer any questions you might have. What’s in the news? Will I need an umbrella today? How old’s Tom Cruise? That kind of stuff. But she’ll also tell you whether your football team won last night, whether the traffic’s bad on your commute and, if you install the requisite Skills, what time your train or bus leaves, plus loads more.

2. Make a shopping list

If you run out of ketchup on Wednesday, chances are you’ll have forgotten by the time you’re out shopping on Sunday. But if you ask Alexa to add it to your shopping list, you can fire up the Alexa app while you’re in the supermarket and see what’s been added over the course of the week. You’ll never have to eat salad cream with your chips in desperation again.

3. Buy stuff with your voice

If you prefer to have your ketchup delivered in bulk, an Echo makes it disconcertingly easy to buy stuff with nothing more than your voice. If you’re a Prime member, just ask Alexa for something and she’ll sell it to you without you ever looking at a screen. She’ll read the description and price first, and if it fits the bill, you can have it charged to your card and sent on its way.

4. Set a timer

For all its other talents, an Amazon Echo is a mighty fine kitchen timer. When your hands are covered in fish guts or mystery meat juice, you don’t want to be fumbling in your pocket for your phone, so get Alexa to count down to dinner time instead. You can set as many as you want, just try to remember what they’re all for.

5. Make a call

You can now make Echo-to-Echo calls just by asking Alexa to ring a name in your contacts. If they’re not home they can take the call via the Alexa app, or you can leave a message for them to pick up when they get home.

6. Test Alexa’s trivia knowledge

Did you know Alexa’s a big film and TV nerd? Ask her about the "Prime Directive" or what the first rule of Fight Club is and you’ll hear exactly what you want. Tell Alexa that "Winter is coming," meanwhile, and you’ll get a random Game of Thrones quote. And for the paranoid users out there, yes, Alexa will also tell you about Skynet.

7. Get your game on

Games on an Echo aren’t exactly a match for Destiny 2 but there’s enough there to keep you entertained while you do the washing up. In the app, go to the Skills section and head to ‘Games, Trivia and Accessories’ to activate them. Akinator is a lot of fun, but most impressive so far is The Wayne Investigation – a voice-controlled, Batman-centric choose-your-own-adventure game.

8. Keep fit

With the 7-Minute Workout skill, Alexa can alleviate your sedentary guilt as it runs you through a quick routine of simple exercises like jumping jacks and wall sits. It’s not the most comprehensive workout around, but it’s better than nothing, right? The latest version adds images to the app, in case you’re unclear on how each exercise works, and can track your total number of workouts.

9. Mix your drinks

Want to spice up your next party? Enable The Bartender from the skills store and ask Alexa to help you mix some drinks. You can find out how to make a specific drink, such as an Old Fashioned or a Dry Martini, or mention the ingredients you have handy to get a suggestion. After that’s gone horribly wrong, ask for a suggestion of the nearest pub.

10. Listen to more books

Got a Kindle or Audible account? It’ll be automatically linked to your Echo and Alexa can read your books to you, which is a surprisingly good way to catch up on that sci-fi epic that’s too big to take on the train. Say: “Alexa play the book [title]” to start, “Go back” to skip back a paragraph, and “Next chapter” to skip forward. It’s like having your own sentient library in your house.

11. Get a translator

Got a Russian builder in and struggling to ask them if they’d like a cup of tea? Activate Translated from the Skills catalogue and when you launch it it’ll ask what word or phrase you want to translate and into which language. You might be better getting them to listen in rather than trying to repeat it, but it could save anyone from going thirsty.

12. Find somewhere to eat

You might not know what you fancy to eat tonight but you do know this: you don’t want to cook. Ask Alexa to find a restaurant near you and she’ll use Yelp to pick out some of the most popular places to eat nearby, or you can specify the kind of food you want to eat and the choices will be narrowed down accordingly.

13. Bring on the tunes

Your Echo will probably spend most of its time playing music and the new fabric-coated model has had its audio chops improved, with clearer, louder playback than before. Choose whether you want to use Amazon Prime Music or Spotify as your default streaming service and then it’s just a case of making a song, album or playlist request. It also supports TuneIn for online radio and podcasts.

14. Stream music from your phone

If you’d prefer to play music from your phone rather than streamed you can use a full-size Echo as a regular Bluetooth speaker. Just ask Alexa to activate Bluetooth and you can pair your phone as normal. Once the music’s playing, you can control it with your voice as if it’s being streamed from the cloud. Magic.

15. Control your smart home

Amazon’s new Echo Plus now has the smart home hub built in, which basically means it cuts down the steps between your voice commands and the lights coming on. It connects to any Alexa-compatible kit within range without the need for extra controllers, and you can control multiple devices with just one command using ‘routines’. For example, saying “Good morning” could make the lights come on and put the kettle on.