Alexa New Features in 2024: What You need to know

Alexa New Features 2023: What You Need To Know

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Alexa with technology is always growing smarter and smarter. Whether you’re at home, on the go, or anywhere. Alexa can also make your life easier, more meaningful, and more enjoyable than ever. With this article, I hope to help you learn about the new features that Alexa can make you better. Read on and enjoy it

Further reading: What Is Alexa And What Does Alexa Do?

Alert When Near

A new accessibility feature called “Notify When Nearby” has been created by to improve alerts for all users. After users turn on this function, Alexa will be able to determine if they are close to an Echo device that qualifies and will play a notification sound to let them know if there are any unread messages. Customers who may not be able to see visual warnings, such as the Yellow Ring light or banners on Echo devices, can make use of it to ensure that they don’t miss crucial notifications or Alexa alerts.

Alexa on Fossil

Customers can now make hands-free calls, play music from their preferred services like Amazon Music and Spotify, set timers and alarms, generate exercise reminders, monitor health goals, manage smart home devices, and more with Alexa on Fossil Group Gen 6 devices.

Support for Amazon Smart Air Quality Monitor’s complete routines

Customers can now establish an Alexa Routine to set up personalized notifications and operate their Alexa-enabled air purifier, humidifier, fan, or smart thermostat when the indoor air quality changes in the US, CA, UK, DE, ES, FR, and IT. To initiate an action based on your preferences, just choose the air quality metrics and the values the device monitors for each.

With Alexa, discover additional discounts and offers.

Now, Prime members can ask Alexa to alert them up to 24 hours in advance if there will be a bargain on an eligible item they have on their wish list, in their cart, or saved for later. To ensure that you never miss out on a discount on the products you’re searching for, you can ask Alexa to order the item for you when the offer is live or to remind you about it when it’s live.

Fire TV Cube audio streaming for hearing aids

Alexa New Features in 2024: What You need to know
Image source: Amazon.com

Customers of the Fire TV Cube (2nd generation) with Starkey Bluetooth hearing aids that are compatible may now stream audio straight to their hearing aids, including Alexa audio for private listening. Your favorite streaming services’ movies and TV programs, as well as music and games, will all sound better when your hearing aids are connected to the Fire TV system. Visit Fire TV Settings > Accessibility > Hearing Aids to pair your hearing aids, then connect them using Bluetooth just as you would with headphones.

While at home and on the move, Alexa keeps you connected.

To make it simpler to stay in touch with your loved ones no matter where you are, we’ve included new Alexa functions. Now, you can exchange text messages with Alexa on Echo Frames without having to take out your phone and respond to your VIP Filter contacts directly. In order to ensure that you don’t miss an essential text from your mother or alerts about breaking news items, you can now ask Alexa, “Alexa, what are my notifications?” and Alexa will reveal any unread notifications from your VIP contacts or applications on Echo Buds, Echo Frames, and Echo Auto.

Person and package detection alerts from Alexa

Once enabled on supported cameras or video doorbells, you can automatically view live video feeds on your Echo Show, Fire TV, and Fire Tablet whenever your camera detects a person or package in addition to hearing an announcement from your Echo device and receiving a push notification from the Alexa mobile app. Additionally, you may program a Routine to do an action, such as turning on a porch light when a person or package is found. All Alexa-compatible Ring video doorbells and cameras come with person detection announcements. It will also soon be offered for the Google Nest Cam (battery or wired, indoor or outdoor), Nest Cam with floodlight, Nest Doorbell (battery), Abode IOTA, and outdoor cameras. Package detection alerts may be seen on the Ring Video Doorbell Pro 2 and Ring Video Doorbell (2020 release), and they will soon be available for outdoor cameras and Abode IOTA as well.

New Alexa features for Amazon Pharmacy

Customers of the Amazon Pharmacy may now ask Alexa for proactive reminders when it’s time to buy refills for their medicines. Customers who have Echo Show devices may now utilize the Amazon Pharmacy skill to view extensive information about their medications on screen, including pill images, Prime and insurance prices, remaining refills available, and more pharmacological information. Customers will need to enter their PIN number and validate their voice through their voice profile in order to receive proactive reminders from Alexa or see information about their medicines on their Echo Show device.

Alexa is available on more devices

The most popular tablet sold by Amazon, the Fire 7, has been improved to provide even more for the entire family. You can use Alexa to access connected smart home devices, play movies and music, launch applications, purchase online, check the weather, and more. With the small size and up to 10 hours of battery life, a 30% faster CPU, twice the RAM, and USB-C for quick charging, you can watch movies, play games, and remain connected at home or while traveling.

The U6HF, the first Hisense smart TV with Amazon and Alexa built-in, was made available by an announcement from Amazon Fire TV and Hisense. Customers may use their voice to quickly change channels, start applications, search for titles, play music, and operate compatible smart home devices by asking Alexa using the Alexa Voice Remote that comes with the smart TV. The new 50-inch U6HF, which is only available on Amazon, delivers Fire TV’s content-forward experience and access to more than 1 million TV episodes and movies in the United States. Along with 4K Dolby Vision HDR, HDR10/HDR10+, and Hisense’s own ULED technology, it also offers remarkable clarity, rich contrast, and vibrant colors.

 Urgent response capability of Best Buy Health

Customers in the US may now connect their Lively and Alexa accounts so that if they need assistance, all they have to do is make a quick voice request to get Lively Urgent Response services. Agents can help in both emergencies when the appropriate authorities need to be called and non-emergencies like hearing a worrying noise outside the house or having a minor medical issue. Once activated, users may ask their compatible Alexa-enabled home devices to “Alexa, call for assistance,” and the Lively Response team will connect them.

Updates to Alexa Together

In order to provide older clients’ families peace of mind and to make it easier for them to live independently, we included additional Alexa Together functions. With the Circle of Support, an elderly consumer may now have up to 10 caregivers pitch in and assist. And soon, the main caregiver will be able to remotely set up Alexa Routines for their elderly loved one if the Remote Assist option is turned on by the individual getting assistance.

Country and language expansion for call captioning

Customers in Brazil, Canada, Mexico, and the United States may now use Call Captioning, which shows captions almost instantly during one-on-one Alexa video chats. Call Captioning is now supported in Spanish, French, and Portuguese. This language and country expansion also supports customers who are deaf and hard of hearing, reflects the multicultural society we live in today, and makes video calls more inclusive, especially for people who live in multilingual households and who want to keep in touch with family members who live in different countries. All Echo Show devices support call captioning.

Alexa Kids’ weather-related sound effects

Customers in the US who use Alexa Kids will now hear entertaining sound effects when Alexa updates them on the weather. Simply ask Alexa, “What’s the weather like?” ” to hear the weather prediction and related noises, such as thunder, wind, and rain.

Game Control for Alexa

Alexa New Features in 2024: What You need to know
Amazon announces Alexa Game Control at Gamescom 2023

In order to provide players with a more immersive video gaming experience, Amazon created Alexa Game Control. With the help of Alexa, you can interact with NPCs, fight off foes, explore without having to press a ton of buttons, switch between weapons, and more by just speaking. Players do not require an Echo or another Alexa-enabled device to play video games with their voice. For in-game voice commands, a player says the supported request without the “Alexa” prefix, such as “swap to my best weapon.” If a gamer wants to invoke an Alexa request outside of the game, such as turning off the lights or ordering a pizza, they can simply say “Alexa, order me a pizza.” Any headset or microphone that is connected to their PC or console will work. The first game to use Alexa Game Control is the forthcoming title Dead Island 2.

Including mobile users in the expansion of the Multilingual Mode

Customers who use the Alexa app on Android smartphones may now upgrade the software to the current version and ask Alexa to talk in two languages. Customers who speak both English and another language may interact with Alexa more easily as a result.

Alexa Widgets on Echo Show 8 and Echo Show 10

In addition to Echo Show 15, widgets are now being released for Echo Show 8 (1st and 2nd gen), Echo Show 10 (2nd and 3rd gen), and other models. To see your favorite widgets, reorder them, or bring up the Widget Gallery on the Echo Show 8 and Echo Show 10, just swipe from the right side of the device screen. Use widgets on Echo Show devices to stream music, find new shows, manage compatible smart home devices, and keep your family organized with shared calendars and to-do lists.

BEST ALEXA SKILLS OF 2023

“Alexa, open the guide”

Now that Fire TV has an integrated channel guide, you may configure it and access it by saying “Alexa, open the guide.” Simply click the menu button on your Alexa Voice Remote to display the “Add Channel” menu after selecting the guide from the Live tab to see what is currently airing. For a personalized live experience, you can then quickly add more live channels from your favorite free and subscription-based applications. Alexa may always be used to launch your preferred live TV shows or events. On the Fire TV blog, you can read more about the channel guide.

Visit the Alexa online page for a thorough overview of Alexa’s functions and the best location to learn about and experiment with what Alexa is capable of. Visit the Alexa Stories blog page to read motivational accounts of how users are incorporating Alexa into their daily life. Visit the Alexa Privacy Hub, a worldwide resource that is accessible to assist consumers to understand more about our approach to privacy and the controls they have, to find out more about Alexa and privacy.

“Alexa, check my symptoms”

To assist you in making more educated choices about your health, Alexa can now assess your symptoms and present a list of potential medical disorders for common diseases including fever, rash, stomachache, runny nose, and headaches. In order to learn more about your unique circumstances throughout this chat, Alexa will ask you a number of questions. Following that, Alexa will provide a list of potential explanations for your symptoms along with a brief description of each condition, using clinical care recommendations from Amazon Care. This feature is not meant to replace expert medical advice; rather, it is intended to give information for educational reasons. Simply say, “Alexa, check my symptoms,” and then describe your symptoms in detail, including their intensity.

The COVID-19 self-checker function our Alexa teams introduced in March 2020 served as the model for this symptom checker experience. You may ask Alexa, “What do I do if I suspect I have COVID-19? ” using that capability. , then Alexa will elicit a series of queries from you. Alexa will provide you advice from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) based on your replies and your risk level and symptoms. We wanted to offer more since consumers informed us they found this feature useful and more than a million people have already used it.

The cornerstone of how we create and develop each of our products and services, including symptom checkers, is privacy. Customers may choose to utilize this optional experience and can skip any questions they don’t feel comfortable answering. Customers may choose to access, hear, and delete their voice recordings via the Alexa Privacy Settings or in the Alexa app at any time after utilizing the capability. You may also use your voice to erase by telling Alexa to “delete what I just said” or “delete everything I said today.”

You may sample a number of Alexa’s health capabilities, including this symptom checker. Customers of the Amazon Pharmacy may easily ask Alexa to restock their medicines by saying, “Alexa, refill my pills.” “Alexa, where can I acquire a COVID vaccine?” is a possible command. “Alexa, tell me where I can get a COVID vaccination booster injection. ” to be given a list of local vaccination sites. Your phone will get a notice from Alexa with a link to schedule an appointment. You may connect with Teladoc by saying, “Alexa, I want to speak to a doctor,” and a Teladoc doctor will call you back on your Echo device. Teladoc on Alexa provides virtual visits for non-emergency medical issues, such as cold, flu, or allergy symptoms.

“Alexa, find my car”

Customers of Echo Auto may now use the “Find My” function on any Alexa-enabled device to ask for assistance in locating their vehicle. Customers who have “Locate My” enabled in the Alexa app may use the command “Alexa, find my car” to get the most recent location of their parked vehicle. To see the position of their automobile on a map, they may either utilize the Alexa app or the Maps widget on an Echo Show 15.

“Alexa, listen to sports.”

Just in time for baseball season, any Alexa-enabled device now makes it simple to find and listen to live audio streaming of significant sports events. You may stream the game of your favorite club by asking “Alexa, listen to the Seattle Mariners game” or any other baseball team to hear a particular game by just saying “Alexa, listen to sports” to find out what is presently available on TuneIn Live.

“Alexa, follow the Seattle Mariners.”

Customers may now tell Alexa to follow their preferred baseball teams so that she can alert them in advance of critical information like scores, club news, and impending game reminders. Simply tell Alexa to “follow the Seattle Mariners” to have the most recent team news sent to your device or the Alexa app.

“Alexa, play ‘Become’ podcast”

You can now listen to the Become podcast, a brand-new Amazon Original health, and wellness podcast that is only accessible on Amazon Music. Each episode will walk you through quick and easy meditation practice in an effort to reduce your stress. To begin, just say, “Alexa, play Become podcast on Amazon Music.”

“Alexa, play Trivia with Samuel L. Jackson”

Through a brand-new interactive quiz game accessible on Alexa-enabled devices, users can test their knowledge of Samuel L. Jackson. Samuel L. Jackson will guide you through a series of multiple-choice questions on his life, work, and more if you just ask Alexa to play trivia with him.

“Alexa, show me My Stuff”

Customers can access their watch lists, video libraries, and DVR material on Fire TV by simply asking “Alexa, show me My Stuff” thanks to improvements to the navigation experience that create a simplified appearance and feel and help customers locate the content they’re looking for more quickly.

“Alexa, open Star Trek Trivia”

Customers in the US may now test their Star Trek knowledge with the brand-new Star Trek Trivia ability on Alexa-enabled devices and climb the ranks of Starfleet Academy. The skill includes knowledge from Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: Picard, and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, which is narrated by Wil Wheaton. Customers have the option of playing alone or challenging friends and family in multiplayer mode. To begin, just say, “Alexa, open Star Trek Trivia.”

“Alexa, start Photo Frame”

Customers can now use Alexa to exhibit their memories and sense of style with Photo Frame, which is now available on all Echo Show devices in the US, CA, UK, DE, FR, IT, ES, JP, and AU. This function, which was previously exclusive to the Echo Show 15, transforms your smartphone into a lovely, three-hour picture slideshow, setting the mood for a party or quiet night in. After you’ve linked your Amazon Photos account, which gives Prime members free unlimited picture storage and 5 GBs of video storage, just say, “Alexa, start Photo Frame,” and Alexa will instantly construct your personalized presentation. Additionally, you may utilize publicly accessible art collections, Facebook images, and stock photography. After you’ve activated Photo Frame, just say “Alexa, go home” to return to the home screen.

“Alexa, play The Rings of Power”

You can use Alexa and Fire TV to completely immerse yourself in Tolkien’s universe by asking them to play The Rings of Power. The epic series that narrates the tale of Middle-Second earth’s Age recently made its Prime Video debut. Every Saturday, brand-new exclusive styles will also debut directly on your Fire TV home screen. Simply say, “Alexa, show me The Rings of Power recipes,” to see Marcus Samuelsson’s at-home dishes inspired by the characters, settings, and environs of this cherished fantasy world and bring Middle-earth to life in your kitchen.

“Alexa, open SongPop”

SongPop, the acclaimed mobile music trivia game, is now accessible on Alexa-enabled devices in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada to celebrate the series’ tenth anniversary. By telling Alexa to launch SongPop or by using the Alexa app for iOS or Android, users may start their experience.

Conclusion

We examine the best options and use user reviews for key Alexa skill categories like “Start Your Day,” “Get Exercise,” and “Music & Audio” to provide trustworthy suggestions. We have tested the aforementioned skills to ensure they are functional and will make Alexa the most helpful personal assistant possible since sometimes skills aren’t as clever as they are claimed.

Now you know all the new Alexa features. Hope this article will help you better understand Alexa. Thereby will make your life more interesting and lively.