Amazon Alexa facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Amazon Alexa

Developer(s)	Amazon
Initial release	November 6, 2014; 10 years ago (2014-11-06)
Operating system	Fire OS 5.0 or later, iOS 11.0 or later Android 4.4 or later
Platform	Fire OS, iOS, Android, Linux, Windows, Wear OS
Available in	English, French, German, Japanese, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Hindi, Arabic
Type	Intelligent personal assistant, cloud-based voice service

Amazon Alexa, or just Alexa, is a smart computer program that acts like a virtual assistant. It was created by Amazon and first appeared in their Amazon Echo smart speakers in 2014. Alexa is based on a speech program called Ivona, which Amazon bought in 2013.

Alexa can understand what you say and do many things. For example, it can play music, help you make to-do lists, set alarms, play podcasts and audiobooks, and give you information like the weather, traffic, sports scores, and news. Alexa can also control many smart devices in your home, like lights or thermostats. You can add more features to Alexa by installing "skills," which are like mini-apps made by other companies.

Most devices with Alexa let you activate it by saying a special "wake-word" like "Alexa" or "Amazon." On some devices, like the Amazon mobile app, you might need to press a button to make Alexa listen.

By 2019, Amazon had sold over 100 million devices that use Alexa. In September 2019, Amazon released many new devices, like the Echo Studio, which offers amazing 360-degree sound. Other new devices included the Echo Dot with a clock, a new Amazon Echo, Echo Show 8, and even Alexa-enabled earphones (Echo Buds) and glasses (Echo Frames).

History

Amazon Echo devices on display in a retail store

Amazon Echo Studio

Alexa was inspired by the computer voice and talking system from the Starship Enterprise in the Star Trek TV shows. Amazon chose the name Alexa because the "X" sound helps the device understand it better. The name also reminds them of the ancient Library of Alexandria, a famous library from history.

In 2015, Amazon started the Alexa Fund, a program that invests in companies creating new voice control features and technologies for Alexa. They also launched the Alexa Prize in 2016 to encourage more people to develop advanced Alexa technology.

In 2017, the first Alexa Conference took place, bringing together developers and fans. Amazon also announced "Alexa for Business," allowing companies to use Alexa for work tasks. In 2018, Amazon partnered with Lennar to include Alexa in 35,000 new homes. Amazon also opened pop-up shops to show how Alexa works with smart home products.

By 2018, you could talk to Alexa in many languages, including English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, and Hindi. In Canada, it's available in English and French. In 2019, Alexa expanded to Brazil, speaking Portuguese.

Alexa App

Logo for the Amazon Alexa app available on the App Store and Google Play

There's a special app for Alexa that you can get on the Apple Appstore, Google Play, and Amazon Appstore. If you have an Alexa device, you can use this app to add new skills, control your music, manage alarms, and check your shopping lists. The app also lets you see what Alexa heard you say and give feedback if it made a mistake.

What Alexa Can Do

Alexa can do many things right out of the box. It can set timers, tell you the weather, create lists, and even read Wikipedia articles. To use Alexa, you just say its "wake word" (usually "Alexa"). Then, Alexa listens for your command or question.

When you ask a question, Alexa turns your sound into text. It then gathers information from different places like WolframAlpha, iMDB, AccuWeather, Yelp, and Wikipedia to give you the best answer. Alexa can also play music from your Amazon Music accounts, or from services like Pandora, Spotify, Apple Music, and Google Play Music.

Besides its built-in features, Alexa can do even more with "skills" that you can add. Some popular skills include trivia games, listening to live sports, getting super-local weather updates, playing calming sounds for sleep, and even fun activities for kids like "Sesame Street." In 2019, Apple, Google, Amazon, and Zigbee Alliance teamed up to make their smart home products work better together.

Amazon is also making Alexa even smarter by adding new AI features, similar to ChatGPT. This upgrade might be a separate paid service in the future. Alexa can also be quite funny! If you ask "Alexa, do you know GLaDOS?", it might give a funny reply that fans of the Portal video games will understand.

Smart Features

As of April 2019^[update], there were over 90,000 "skills" available for Alexa devices, which is a huge jump from just 1,000 in 2016. In 2018, Microsoft's AI assistant Cortana also became available on Alexa devices. Amazon also added a "Brief Mode" where Alexa just beeps instead of saying "Okay" after a command. In December 2018, Alexa got better at answering questions about math, science, history, and more, thanks to a new connection with the Wolfram Alpha answer engine.

Smart Home Control

Alexa can connect with smart devices from many different companies like Philips Hue, Nest, and SmartThings. This means you can use your voice to control lights, thermostats, and other smart gadgets in your home. This feature started in April 2015. Developers can even create their own smart home skills using the Alexa Skills Kit.

In September 2018, Amazon released a microwave oven that you can control with an Echo device. Alexa can also work with Ring doorbells to greet visitors and give instructions for package deliveries. Amazon says that people are using Alexa to control their smart home devices twice as much as before, especially smart fans and ACs.

Ordering Things

You can use Alexa to order food from places like Domino's Pizza, Grubhub, and Pizza Hut. In the UK, you can order meals through Just Eat. Starbucks even tested a way to place pick-up orders using Alexa. You can also order groceries using Amazon Prime Now in many US cities. With Amazon Key, Alexa can even work with smart locks to let Amazon delivery people leave packages inside your home.

Music and Entertainment

Alexa works with many music services, both free and paid, like Prime Music, Amazon Music, Apple Music, TuneIn, iHeartRadio, Audible, Pandora, and Spotify Premium. You can stream music directly from your Amazon Music library or audiobooks from your Audible library. If you're an Amazon Prime member, you get access to millions of songs for free.

You can also upload up to 250 of your own songs from Google Play or iTunes to Amazon Music for PC, and then Alexa can play them for you using voice commands.

Sports Updates

Alexa can keep you updated on your favorite sports teams. You just need to add your teams to the Sports Update section in the Alexa app.

Alexa can give you updates for 15 different sports leagues, including:

• IPL (cricket)
• MLS (soccer)
• EPL (English soccer)
• NBA (basketball)
• NCAA men's basketball (college basketball)
• UEFA Champions League (European soccer)
• FA Cup (English soccer)
• MLB (baseball)
• NHL (hockey)
• NCAA FBS football (college football)
• NFL (American football)
• 2. Bundesliga (German soccer)
• WNBA (women's basketball)
• 1. Bundesliga (German soccer)
• WWE (wrestling)

Messaging and Calls

You can send messages using the Alexa app. Alexa can send messages to another person's Alexa app or to their Echo devices. If you send a message from an Echo device, it will be a voice message. Alexa cannot send pictures or videos.

If you live in a household with more than one person, all Alexa contacts are shared across devices linked to that Amazon account. Anyone with access to your household's devices can hear these messages. There isn't a password or PIN for this feature. You can temporarily block message and call alerts using the "Do Not Disturb" feature.

Business Use

Alexa for Business was a service that allowed companies to use Alexa for work, like joining conference calls or scheduling meetings. It also let companies create special skills for their own needs. As of 2023, Alexa for Business has been replaced by "Alexa Smart Properties," which focuses on services for hotels, senior living, and healthcare.

Weather and Traffic Alerts

Since February 2020, Alexa can tell you when a severe weather warning is issued in your area. It can also give you updates on your commute, traffic conditions, or directions, and even send that information to your phone.

Alexa Skills Kit

Amazon lets developers create and share "skills" for Alexa using something called the Alexa Skills Kit (ASK). Once a skill is published, anyone with an Alexa device can use it. You can turn these skills on using the Alexa app.

There's also a "Smart Home Skill API" that hardware makers can use to let people control their smart home devices with Alexa. Most skills run their code in "the cloud" using Amazon's AWS Lambda service.

In April 2018, Amazon launched "Blueprints," a tool that lets anyone create simple skills for their own personal use. In February 2019, Amazon made it possible for people to publish these Blueprint skills to the Alexa Skill Store in the US, so others could use them too.

Alexa Voice Service

Amazon allows other companies to add Alexa's voice features to their own products using the Alexa Voice Service (AVS). This is a cloud-based service that provides tools for connecting with Alexa. Products built with AVS can use all of Alexa's growing features, including all the skills. AVS helps with understanding speech and language. Companies don't have to pay fees to use AVS to put Alexa in their products.

The voice of Amazon Alexa is created by a special type of computer program called an artificial neural network.

In September 2019, Alexa and Google Assistant started helping users apply for jobs at McDonald's using voice commands. This was the first employment service using voice commands. Also in 2019, Amazon announced that Alexa would soon be able to sound like celebrities, including Samuel L. Jackson, for a small fee. Alexa also started replying to Spanish voice commands in Spanish. In 2020, Amazon announced that Amitabh Bachchan would be the new voice of Alexa in India.

Amazon Lex

In November 2016, Amazon made the technology behind Alexa's speech recognition and language understanding available to developers as "Amazon Lex." This service lets developers create their own chatbots that can talk like Alexa. It can connect to other Amazon services and even to apps like Facebook Messenger, Slack, and Twilio.

Where Alexa is Available

As of November 2018^[update], Alexa is available in 41 countries. Most recently, it launched in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in December 2021.

Devices That Use Alexa

As of September 2018^[update], more than 20,000 different devices can work with Amazon Alexa. Here are some of the types of devices that have Alexa built-in or can connect to it:

Smart Speakers

TVs and Media Boxes

Phones and Tablets

Laptops and Desktops

Smart Home Devices

Wearables and Earphones

Cars

Other Devices

Alexa Prize

In September 2016, Amazon announced the Alexa Prize, a competition for university students. Teams and their universities can win money and research grants. The first competition in 2017 focused on building a "socialbot," which is a computer program that can have conversations with people. The University of Washington team won the first prize. Later, teams from the University of California, Davis and Emory University also won top prizes in similar challenges.

Alexa Fund

Amazon believes strongly in voice technology, so on June 25, 2015, they announced the Alexa Fund. This fund invests money in developers, device makers, and companies of all sizes. The goal is to make digital voice assistants even more powerful for users. Companies that get funding are usually those that create new Alexa features using the Alexa Skills Kit (ASK) or Alexa Voice Service (AVS).

When choosing companies to invest in, Amazon looks for how much they focus on the customer, how new and creative their ideas are, and how motivated their leaders are. Besides money, Amazon also offers help with business, technology, marketing, and getting products ready for the market.

Some of the companies that have received funding include ecobee, Invoxia, Ring, and TrackR.

See Also

In Spanish: Amazon Alexa para niños

• Cortana
• Google Assistant
• Mycroft
• Siri
• Bixby