These are the best Alexa skills for your new Amazon Echo smart speaker
If you unwrapped a new Amazon Echo smart speaker this week, you'll be wanting to know how to get the most out of it.
Sure, you can ask it to play music and tell jokes, but there are now over 70,000 free 'skills' to be downloaded from Amazon and installed on your Echo device. These skills are like applications, and when installed they give Alexa new abilities.
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But finding the best skills isn't easy. Because — as we have reported previously — very few people review the skills, making it tricky for Amazon to automatically produce a reliable list of which is best.
Thankfully, the company has now published a curated selection of the best Alexa skills. We've published this list below, complete with a small description of each skill, provided by Amazon. The skills are split into four categories: Games, Family, Wellness and Daily Habits.
You can install the following skills by speaking to Alexa, or by opening the Alexa smartphone app, searching for the skill you want and tapping the 'enable' button. To open a skill, just ask Alexa.
For example, to open the Heads Up skill, say: "Alexa, open Heads Up" and the skill will begin. And remember, Alexa is identical on all Echo devices, so whether you have an Echo Dot, an Echo Plus, or any other Echo device, it'll work just the same.
Games:
Beat the Intro
- Beat the Intro has you join Moozzo, music expert and host, to guess the song title and artist as fast as possible.
Heads Up!
- Play the hilarious game from the Ellen DeGeneres show with Alexa. Pick a category and Alexa will provide up to three fun facts and clues to help you guess the word — see how many you can get right in 90 seconds.
National Geographic Geo Quiz
- National Geographic Geo Quiz puts your geography knowledge to the test.
Question of The Day
- Every day, Question of the Day poses a new trivia question for you to respond to, from arts and entertainment to literature and science. Collect points and hear how others have answered.
Skyrim Very Special Edition
- For the very first time ever, take your rightful place as the Dragonborn of legend (again) and explore Skyrim using the power of your own voice...your Thu'um.
The Magic Door
- The Magic Door is an interactive adventure game with original stories. You can tell Alexa what choices to make as you explore a magical land with various regions, including a forest, sea, garden and castle. You will collect hidden items, solve riddles, and help magical creatures.
Trivia Hero
- A general knowledge race against the clock. You have just 60 seconds to answer as many tricky trivia questions as you can. You can play on your own or against up to 20 others.
World Mathematics League
- World Mathematics League is a global level mathematics competition. Every day you will get a chance to contribute to your team's score by solving simple math questions.
Would You Rather for Family
- Would You Rather for Family is a simple but addicting game for all ages where you make a choice between two lighthearted and silly situations.
Yes Sire
- This medieval fantasy game includes a needy peasant, backstabbing royalty, and a king that is never satisfied. You sit as a medieval lord of the realm, and are presented with an ever-expanding array of difficult choices to run your kingdom and stay in power.
Family Skills:
Animal Workout
- Dance like a giraffe, and more, with this quirky game that gets you moving.
Chompers
- This skill helps families build good teeth-brushing habits. Chompers makes teeth-brushing entertaining by telling stories when you brush your teeth, counts the times you brush, and celebrates your streaks.
Kids Court
- Kids Court lets kids take their friends, siblings, or parents to Kids Court to get a ruling, all while learning basic facts about the US judicial system.
Lemonade Stand
- Lemonade Stand focuses on careful listening, math, money, business, understanding odds and chance statements, and managing expectations by owning a lemonade stand.
Sesame Street
- Elmo from Sesame Street will talk about the letter of the day or play a good game of Hide & Seek, with silly sounds as clues to where he's hiding.
Wellness Skills:
- Chop Chop
- Chop Chop is a hands free kitchen companion serving up fun, easy to follow tutorials on chopping fresh produce.
Fitbit
- Check in on your daily Fitbit progress with Alexa. Ask Alexa if you hit your sleep goal, how you did yesterday, or just get a quick update on the stats you care about the most.
Headspace: Guided Meditation for Everyone
- Headspace helps you build a meditation practice that fits in to your daily schedule with guided practice, plus a sleep exercise to help you wind down.
Sleep and Relaxation Sounds
- Sleep and Relaxation Sounds plays calming sounds on loop (from ocean sounds to rainforest sounds to white noise) to help you fall asleep faster, relax, meditate, or drown out distracting noises.
Daily Habit Skills:
Find My Phone
- Find My Phone allows you to easily call your lost phone from Alexa.
AnyPod
- AnyPod lets you play any podcast. Explore thousands of comedy, drama, music, tech, news, education, and pop culture audio programs.
Big Sky
- The Big Sky skill gives you hyper-local, hour-by hour forecasts.
Make Me Smart
- Get smarter in 2 minutes a day. Marketplace hosts Kai Ryssdal and Molly Wood tell you what you need to know about the economy, pop culture, tech and current events in this daily skill.
TuneIn Live
- TuneIn Live brings you the best collection of thousands of live sporting events and premium news stations to your Alexa-enabled device.
Check out The GearBrain, our smart home compatibility checker to see the other compatible products that work with Amazon Alexa enabled devices.
