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You already know that your Amazon Dot or Echo makes a great desktop speaker, but have you fully taken advantage of Alexa yet? Alexa is Amazon Echo’s version of a voice-activated personal assistant, just waiting to write your grocery list, order Thai delivery, or check the weather for you. Basically, Alexa has been designed to make your life easier and more fun while seamlessly integrating with your other devices and apps.

Alexa has been programmed to perform so many cool tasks- some functional and others simply fun-that it can be impossible to keep track of them all. More innovative features are being programmed into Amazon Echo all the time. To see what we mean, just check out these six amazing things you probably didn’t know Alexa could do:

Keep Your To-Do List Super Organized

Even the least organized person can get a handle on their to-list with the help of Alexa. Simply tell Alexa you would like to make a to-do list. Then, add new tasks or appointments to it at any time through simple voice commands like “Alexa, add ‘get hair cut on Tuesday’ to my to-do list.”

Simply ask Alexa to read you your to-do list anytime you want to make sure you haven’t forgotten anything. If you already use an app like Wunderlist or Evernote to write and keep track of to-do lists, you can integrate the app of your choice with Alexa for an even more organized experience.

Run Your Smart Home Devices

Whether you have a professionally designed smarthome or are just starting out with something simple like automated light bulbs or a programmable thermostat, Alexa integrates beautifully with home automation systems, apps, and devices. Instead of finding your phone, unlocking it, and searching for the correct app, simply say “Alexa, turn the living room lights on” or “Alexa, set the thermostat to 70 degrees” and you are all set.

Find Alexa’s Hidden Easter Eggs

Alexa’s programmers have a lot of fun hiding Easter eggs- hidden jokes and other features- for you to find. Most of these are fun for both kids and adults, making family game night much more entertaining. This comprehensive list of Easter eggs will get you started with fun questions to ask Alexa that often result in unexpectedly clever answers.

While most of Alexa’s Easter eggs are one-off jokes or answers related to pop culture, there is also the command “Alexa, enable the magic door” which leads to an interactive story adventure that you control.

Use Alexa as Your Sous Chef in the Kitchen

Once you use Alexa to streamline cooking and baking, you may suddenly feel like you could be a contestant on Chopped. Having Alexa help with everything from double checking recipe instructions, setting timers, converting measurements, and adding ingredients to your shopping list makes your time in the kitchen much more fun and efficient. Best of all, it’s all hands-free so you don’t have to constantly interrupt your meal prep to wash your hands and search for something on your phone.

Become Super Well-Informed

In your Amazon Echo account settings, there is an optional setting called “Flash Briefing” that reads you the highlights of various news and sports publications and apps each day. This can be customized to include the exact variety of news sources you’re interested in. When combined with Alexa’s podcast compatibility, you will soon be better-informed than ever.

Order Virtually Anything with a Simple Command

Echo of course works very well with your Amazon Prime account, meaning you can ask Alexa to order anything from new running shoes to toilet paper and receive it two days later. You can also integrate Alexa with food delivery services like GrubHub, making those nights when you are too tired to cook as easy as saying “Alexa, order a thin crust pepperoni pizza from my favorite local pizza place.”
Have you discovered any cool Alexa tricks or hidden functions that we didn’t include on our list? Let us know in the comments so we can try them too![:]