Alexa skills are a world of their own. When we logged into our Alexa app this morning to try and find the best Alexa skills to try, she randomly told us to activate the “Is Santa Claus Watching” skill. Once we turned that on and asked our Echo Show if Santa was really watching, the voice assistant told us: “Santa is watching, so you better do your chores‘. So, having scared the dishes and cleaned up the cat stained bath in the hat, we managed to get back to researching the best Alexa skills for home and garden, which we’ve outlined here. . The moral is there – it’s easy to get distracted by Alexa Skills, but if you’re looking for tools to improve your home life, there’s a lot to be found.

The Alexa Skills Store is full of useful skills, and aside from the fun Santa-like skills, there are some that can actually make your home life more convenient and faster, as well as fun. If you already own one of the best Alexa speakers – like Echo Show 15, Echo Dot, or Echo Studio, for example – you are probably already using a lot of useful skills every week. You can find tens of thousands of Alexa Skills in the Skills Store across all categories: Exercise, Food & Drink, Kids, Lifestyle, Smart Home, and more, and these are added daily.

But what are Alexa skills?

Alexa Skills are apps for your Amazon speaker that allow the Alexa voice assistant to access lots of useful internet information, play games, find recipes, listen to podcasts, or even meditate! While an Alexa “feature” is something you can do instantly when you turn on your Alexa-enabled device – like getting a weather update or asking Alexa for a joke – an Alexa skill is something you should actively select from. the skills store. You must “activate” or “launch” the skill on your device as you would add an application on your smartphone or tablet.

Some Alexa skills are designed to work in harmony with other smart devices in your home, which will help you create a seamlessly connected home. If you link your Ring doorbell to your Echo Show using Alexa Skills for example, you can see who is knocking on your door on your smart speaker. With Alexa Skills, you can gain much more control over your best Alexa-enabled devices.

Best Alexa Skills You Must Try

1. Control your Ring Doorbell and smart security camera

You will need to have a Ring gadget such as a Ring Video Doorbell or Ring Security Camera in order to use the Ring Alexa skill. Once you’ve activated the skill and linked your Ring and Alexa accounts, you’ll be able to see or hear who’s at your front door or in your backyard on your Amazon device such as Fire TV, Echo Show, or Echo Spot. This is very useful if you have your hands full and cannot find your smartphone, for example. To view the live video, you must also be enrolled in the Ring Protect Plan.

To try: “Alexa, answer the front door.”

2. Set a reminder for gardening tasks to be done.

Want to get started with new garden trends? If you can’t wait for Gardeners Question Time on BBC Radio 4 or don’t have time to read Monty Don’s latest tome, turn on Weekend Gardening Jobs on the Skills Store. Each week he will give you gardening jobs to do throughout the year, such as “put in bird food to encourage winter birds” and “cut down wilted perennials” or “mulch the soil with it. compost ”. The tips are short and sweet, but may just give you the boost you need to get out the gardening tools and take a look at what needs to be done.

To try: “Alexa, start the yard work.”

If you have a particularly green thumb, you might also like to cast the Planting Time skill. You can use it to ask Alexa when to plant specific items like broccoli or beans.

To try: “Alexa, ask when to plant the tomatoes?” “

3. Ask Alexa to cut the grass

How’s that for a low maintenance garden idea? As long as you have a robotic lawnmower, you can use Alexa Skills to work with your voice and stop, start and renovate the garden as needed. You will need to find a robotic lawn mower that works with Amazon Alexa, such as the Bosch robotic lawn mower. or the Stihl RMI 422PC. Once you switch to a robotic lawn mower, you will no doubt wonder how you ever lived without it. You can also set up routines in the Alexa app to have the mower turn on and off at the time you prefer.

To try: “Alexa, cut the grass.”

4. Ask Alexa to vacuum the house

Continuing on from the automated home slash theme “we can’t be bothered getting off the couch,” comes our next Alexa Skill. With a robotic vacuum cleaner like EufyHome RoboVac or iRobot Home Roomba – which are two of the best vacuum cleaners – you can use Alexa voice control to keep your floors spotless without having to lift a finger.

EufyHome and iRobot are just two companies that are Alexa compatible, but there are more, so when choosing your robotic vacuum cleaner, just check that it is compatible with the smart assistant you chose to use voice control.

Once you’ve set up your robot mop, you can activate the appropriate skill and feed your inner control freak by demanding that the floors be kept spotless. Add to: “Or nobody goes to the ball” just for fun, but look around first to make sure no one is looking at you.

To try: “Alexa, ask RoboVac to start cleaning” Where “Alexa, ask Roomba to start vacuuming.“

5. Control your lighting remotely

There is a wide range of smart lighting companies with features that are compatible with Alexa. If you are wondering how do smart bulbs work and should I buy one? then we can tell you that yes you should, if you have an alexa. Philips Hue and Wiz are just a few of the smart lighting companies that work well with Alexa voice control, but you’ll find others.

To get the most out of voice control, you’ll need to download the specific smart lighting app, set it up correctly, and link accounts through the Alexa app.

To try: “Alexa, light up the kitchen at 60%”.

What are the best Alexa skills to try?

“Alexa has a lot of features outside of the ones we tend to use by default, like timers when you cook or listen to the radio,” says Dennis Stansbury, country manager for Alexa UK & Ireland.

“There are thousands of Alexa skills that can help you run your home, and you can even find out how often to water your plants. I use Alexa to make cooking on weekdays easier. I set my food preferences to vegetarian so I can ask Alexa for relevant recipes from BBC Good Food. This makes it easy to add the items I need to my shopping list and checkout with the new Sainsbury’s skill. ‘

What funny things can you ask Alexa?

Try asking Alexa:

1. Alexa, what color should I paint my wall?

2. Alexa, what if you step on a Lego?

3. Alexa, how was your day?

4. Alexa, what is the value of pi?

5. Alexa, what do you want to be when you grow up?

6. Alexa, what is the meaning of life?