They should not map verbatim phrases to actions. Voice Assistants need to understand natural language–which can have slight word variants–and still get the right meaning that a user is intending. Magical phrases with Voice Assistants lead to alienating and confusing users who are trying to use the system. When you do, it feels like the Voice Assistant doesn’t actually understand the words themselves. If you only change a word or two in your command, you shouldn’t get an entirely different result. Voice Assistants shouldn’t have magical phrases.īy a magical phrase, I mean any verbatim phrase that you have to memorize in order to get exactly what you want. This experience ultimately leads me to one of the biggest mistakes Voice Assistants can make. I can’t seem to remember which magical phrase gives me the right soundtrack. But it got me thinking, why do these similar phrases with a one word difference go to totally different Alexa Skills?Īnd what’s more, now that I know that having one word difference in the phrase gives me the wrong ambient sound, I’m starting to second guess myself. I could barely hear it.Īs you can imagine, this phrase mixup was really annoying to experience late at night before going to bed. To add insult to injury, the sound quality of this “rain noise” vs my usual “rain sounds” was much, much lower. Alexa then proceeded to tell me about this skill’s premium features and asked if I wanted to subscribe for a higher-quality ambient sound. Wouldn’t you expect both phases to start up the same skill as they’re very similar to each other? I did! However, what I got instead is rain that sounded totally different than what I’m used to. Generally, I use the phrase, “Alexa, play rain sounds.” This command starts up this Alexa Skill, which is one of the most heavily reviewed Alexa Skills out there.īut this time I used the phrase, “Alexa, play rain noise.” instead. Recently, I forgot what phrase I used to get Alexa to start playing my favorite ambient noise skill that I use to sleep. Ocean Sounds My Problem with Ambient Sound Alexa Skills.Being from Florida, I a big fan of of rain and thunderstorms: Here are a few of my favorite Alexa white noise sounds to try. Some of the most popular Ambient Sound Skills even have reviews on large news sites like TechCrunch. Ambient noise is by far the most popular Alexa Skill category. After all, there’s no reason to have a totally separate device for creating white noise when you can just use Alexa, right? It turns out I’m not alone in thinking this. One of the things I use Alexa for in my bedroom is a glorified White Noise Sound Machine. And just like other App Stores, you’re also able to see reviews and ratings in the skill store. The Alexa Skill Store is where you can search for all the existing Alexa Skills. The main benefit for Amazon is the ability to access thousands of developers and their ingenuity, as developers are freely able to add any sort of functionality to Alexa that they think is useful for users. Just like how anyone can create Apps for your Smartphone, anyone can create an Alexa Skill that works with Alexa. How to Change the Default Service Alexa Skills and The Skill Storeīefore getting too deep, let me backtrack and explain what an Alexa Skill is and the corresponding Alexa Skill Store.Īlexa Skills are basically Apps for Alexa.A Word of Caution for Premium Ambient Sounds.How did both Alexa Skills get enabled in the first place? Which Alexa Skill has the higher sound quality? My Problem with Ambient Sound Alexa Skills.Perhaps instead of nature, you’d like to sleep to the sound of steam trains or maybe medieval sounds instead? Table of Contents It turns out, you can indeed find an Alexa Skill for just about any sort of noise you think is ambient. And after page two, I see another two full pages of ambient sounds–from whale sounds to harp sounds. I have to go down to the second page–around spot 20–just to find an Alexa Skill that isn’t an ambient sound (it’s a skill for Bible verses if you’re wondering). Here are the top four when looking at the Alexa Skill Store, sorted by highest average customer rating. Most Popular Alexa Skills – all Ambient Noise Basically any and all ambient sounds you can think of have a separate Alexa Skill. There are Alexa Skills that play rain sounds, storm sounds, or some other form of white noise like it. Can Alexa play white noise? Absolutely! There are tons of Alexa skills that provide white noise options.
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