Tired of Siri? Here’s How to Use Amazon’s Alexa on iPhone

But how does one use Alexa on iOS anyway? This AppAdvice article provides the answer, compiled with a little help from the intelligent personal assistant itself.

To use Alexa on iOS, you need the latest version of Amazon’s flagship app for iPhone.

In the Amazon app, tap the microphone icon near the search bar to activate Alexa.

After activating Alexa in the Amazon app, just speak your question or command to proceed. Below are some of the things Alexa can help you with.

You know why Alexa is made available in Amazon’s shopping app? To get you to shop more on Amazon, of course. And to that end, you can do the following actions by saying things like the included examples.

Search: “Best selling headphones,” “Women’s running shoes,” “Search for cameras under $100”
Reorder: “Reorder granola bars,” “Buy more laundry detergent”
Add to Cart: “Add batteries to Cart,” “Put toothpaste in my Cart”
Track orders: “Where’s my package?”, “Track my last order,” “Where are my granola bars?”

Alexa is also tightly integrated with Amazon’s music and e-book services. Consequently, you can ask Alexa to stream books from your Kindle library or play music from Amazon Music Unlimited, Prime Music, or your purchased music. Below are some things you can say.

Books: “Read my Kindle book.” “Read my book, [title].” “Play the Kindle book, [title].” “Read [title].”
Music: “Play some music.” “Play the song [title].” “Play the album [title].” “Play songs by [artist].” “Play some [genre] music.” “Play some [genre] music from Prime.” “Listen to my [title] playlist.” “Shuffle my [title] playlist.”

As with Siri, you can ask Alexa a variety of questions on a wide range of topics, and ask it to spell and define words and perform conversions and calculations (albeit single-operation ones only). Here are just a few examples:

“Who is Jeff Bezos?”
“When is St. Patrick’s Day?”
“How do you spell vicissitudes?”
“Define verisimilitude.”
“How many pints are in 7 gallons?”
“What is 903+784?”
“What time is it in Manila?”
“How many calories are in a granola bar?”
“Wikipedia black hole.”
“Tell me a joke.”

You can also count on Alexa for updates on the news, weather, and traffic by asking questions such as:

News: “What’s in the news?” “What’s my flash briefing?” “What’s new?”
Weather: “What’s the weather?” “Will it rain tomorrow?” “What’s the weather in L.A. this weekend?” “What’s the extended forecast for London?” “Is it going to snow on Monday?”
Traffic: “How is traffic?” “What’s my commute?” “What’s traffic like right now?”

With Alexa in the Amazon app on iOS, you can also control your Alexa-enabled smart home devices using voice-driven capabilities or “skills.” You can set skills for your devices using the Amazon Alexa app.

And that’s how you can use Amazon’s Alexa on iOS — in lieu of or in tandem with Apple’s Siri — using the main Amazon app.

If you want to use Alexa where it’s most at home, you’ll have to get an Amazon Echo, Echo Dot, or Amazon Tap.