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Below find five new or noteworthy Alexa skills to try this week, including Oprah Winfrey’s first Alexa skill, a way to get help with pretty much anything at your house in minutes, and a way to search for movies across multiple popular streaming services, like Amazon Prime Video.
Each of these skills is listed in the Alexa Skills Store. In Alexa news this week, Amazon opened its microphone tech to third-party device makers.
Oprah Magazine
Available for the first time Friday, this skill includes a collection of readings and inspirational words from Winfrey’s book What I Know for Sure. The skill’s page in the Alexa Skills Store also mentions “a collection of intimate pieces from her monthly magazine column.”
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The skill begins with some 90 unique messages from Oprah, according to a Wall Street Journal article on the skill, but maker Hearst Corporation says additional features will be added in the future. Oprah Magazine and Hearst’s Native and Emerging Technologies team made the Oprah Magazine Alexa skill.
HomeAdvisor
The HomeAdvisor Alexa skill connects you to the HomeAdvisor network of 100,000 for help with things like remodels, plumbing, carpentry, or landscaping. If you say “Alexa, ask HomeAdvisor to find me a painter,” the skill will ask for your zip code and phone number, and a HomeAdvisor pro will call you. If there are no matches in your area, a list of nearby professionals by rating, number of reviews, and phone numbers will be sent to your Alexa app.
A fair amount of commerce is beginning to flow through Alexa. You can already buy millions of things from the Amazon marketplace with your voice. Pretty wild to think that a home remodel or weekend project can begin with Alexa.
Milo
Tell Milo the name of any movie and it will tell you where you can watch the movie streaming online or where you can buy a digital copy. Milo searches streaming services like Amazon Prime Video, Xfinity, Crackle, Google Play, iTunes, Sony Entertainment Network, and on demand from TV channels like TNT.
Milo has a sister skill named Titus that tells you where to find streaming television shows.
Rainforest Sounds
This skill comes from ambient noise skill creator Nick Schwab, who recently began to add new sounds, like an airplane, fireplace, and rainforest. His thunderstorm and ocean sound skills have been some of the most popular skills in the Alexa Skills Store.
While Alexa can control your home appliances, crack jokes, and access more than 10,000 skills, it’s become clear that ambient noise is a popular category.
24: Legacy Daily Mission
From Fox Home Entertainment, the 24: Legacy skill asks you to complete a daily task in 24 seconds. Each task (I was given 12 sit-ups) is set to that iconic pulsating second ticker that acts as this show’s suspense-inducing theme song.
