It\u2019s fair to say that Alexa has pretty much taken over the world. A huge amount of people now have smart speakers or other smart home devices that have Alexa built in, and with just a simple voice command, they can tell Alexa to do anything from turning the lights on through to playing music and even scheduling events and appointments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You might think you know everything that Alexa can do, but you\u2019d be surprised. Amazon\u2019s assistant has a lot of built-in functions that many people have no cause or opportunity to use, but they can be fun, and some of them might even be useful for you. Here are 15 things you might not have known Alexa can do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Find your phone<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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That\u2019s right – Alexa can find where you\u2019ve left your phone. Around 70 million smartphones are lost<\/a> each and every year, so don\u2019t let yours become one of them. All you have to do is ask Alexa to find your phone, and she\u2019ll call it for you. Of course, this won\u2019t be useful if you\u2019ve left your device on silent, but hopefully you haven\u2019t. Unfortunately, Alexa can\u2019t change this setting for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Find recipes<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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If you\u2019re struggling to figure out what you want to eat tonight, Alexa can help you with that. Just ask her to \u201cfind some recipes for dinner\u201d or \u201cfind me a healthy breakfast recipe\u201d, and she\u2019ll pull up a recipe from one of the millions available online for you to follow. She can even tell you what to do along the way; she\u2019ll read out each recipe step as it comes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Talk to your pets<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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Have you got a cat that needs to be comforted while you\u2019re at work or away? Maybe you\u2019ve got a dog that gets anxious if there\u2019s no human contact for a while. If either of these are the case, don\u2019t despair; Alexa can talk to your pets. \u201cRelax my dog\u201d and \u201cMeow\u201d are commands you can give to Alexa, and depending on which one you use, she\u2019ll then talk to your dog or your cat. Neat, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. Change the subject<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

No, really. If you\u2019re having a conversation and it\u2019s not going well – if your parents are asking about your love life, for example, or your friends are asking why you ghosted them last week – then you can simply shout \u201cchange the subject\u201d to Alexa, and she\u2019ll give you a fact that you can use as a new talking point. It might not work flawlessly for your conversation, but it\u2019s a fun feature nonetheless!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. Play ambient sounds for relaxation<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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It\u2019s been proven that sleeping with the sounds of nature can help you to get to sleep better<\/a> and can also enrich your sleep. Alexa can help you to achieve this. All you need to do is ask her to play some soothing natural sounds for you before bed, and she\u2019ll oblige. These sounds could be the chirping of birds, the ambience of a rainforest (sans lions, of course) or rain falling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6. Rap<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Whether or not Alexa\u2019s got bars is up for debate, but she can give it a darn good go. You might disagree with the quality of her wordplay, but if you ask Alexa to rap, she\u2019ll do it. She can also sing if you want her to, and she\u2019ll recite poetry if you ask her to. Her voice doesn\u2019t quite suit the lilting, melodic qualities of Romantic poetry, but the fact that she can do it at all is fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7. Shop for you<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n