Alexa Guard
Alexa Guard is Alexa’s contribution to your home’s security. It’ll alert you of sounds like broken glass or smoke alarms and can switch your smarts lights on and off.
Alexa Hunches
Hunches are a feature that enables Alexa to remind you if you’ve forgotten something you usually do. For example, if you leave an Alexa-connected light on after you say, “Alexa, goodnight,” it’ll ask if you want to switch that light off.
Alexa Together
Alexa Together is a subscription service designed for seniors and their loved ones to keep in touch and provide remote assistance. It has features like 24/7 emergency response and fall detection.
Alexa Voice ID
Alexa Voice IDs are unique voice profiles that Alexa uses to recognize who’s interacting with the service and provide customized responses, including person-specific reminders and flash briefings.
Announcements
Announcements are a way to broadcast messages to all Alexa-enabled devices in your household, and can be sent via an Echo device or the Alexa app (available for iOS and Android).
Blueprints
Alexa Blueprints enable you to create a customized skill in minutes without any coding, using a pre-built template. They range from creating interactive stories to guiding guests around your home and much more.
Brief Mode
Brief Mode shortens Alexa’s responses. So instead of saying “OK” after every request, Alexa will keep its responses to a minimum and only provide necessary details.
Do Not Disturb
Like the Do Not Disturb feature on many smartphones, this feature will block notifications, drop-ins, announcements, and calls and messages when enabled.
Drop In
Drop In lets you instantly connect to an Echo device and start communicating with those on the other end. You can Drop In to your own Echo or one of your contacts, as long as they’ve granted permission for you to do so.
To learn more, take a look at our article on how Drop In works.
Flash Briefing
A Flash Briefing is a customizable collection of the latest updates from your favorite broadcast services. They’re short audio clips, usually a minute or two long, that are played in a chosen sequence. You could have a local news update, followed by the weather, before hearing the latest business and sports news, for example.
Check out our guide to creating a customized Flash Briefing to get started.
Follow-Up Mode
Enabling Follow-Up Mode will keep Alexa listening for a few seconds after a request, meaning you can bundle requests together instead of needing to say “Alexa” before each one.
Live Translation
Parent Dashboard
Reading Sidekick
Routines
A Routine is a set of actions that are started by a trigger. They’re a way to chain activities together and are created in the Alexa app. You could, for example, create a Routine that turns the living room and kitchen lights off and the bedroom lights on when you say “Alexa, goodnight.”
Want to know how to set up an Alexa routine? Read our guide on getting started with Alexa routines.
Skills
Alexa Skills are the equivalent of apps on your smartphone. They’re created to enhance the capabilities of Alexa and can take the form of games, sounds, radio stations, and more.
Want to expand your Alexa’s capabilities? Here are some of the best free Alexa skills.
Sports Update
Similar to Flash Briefings, Sports Updates are personalized updates on the performance and schedule of your favorite teams. You can set your teams in the Alexa app and trigger the update by asking, “Alexa, what’s my Sports Update?”.
Voice Shopping
Wake Word
Whisper Mode
When Whisper Mode is enabled, you can whisper to Alexa and hear its response whispered back—ideal for when you need to use Alexa but don’t want to disturb others.
Expand Your Alexa Knowledge
Hopefully, this article will have given you a little bit more insight into the world of Alexa. If you’re interested in learning more about a particular aspect, you can use the search function in the toolbar to find in-depth articles on a variety of Alexa features.
