Alexa

Updated: 12/10/2023 by Computer Hope

Alexa may refer to any of the following:

Amazon Alexa logo

1. Alexa is an artificial intelligence digital assistant developed by Amazon. Using voice commands, users can talk to Alexa to perform device shortcuts, play media, and control third-party devices and applications through Alexa Skills.

Alexa is supported on most current Amazon devices, including the Fire TV, Amazon Echo, and Kindle devices. Select third-party devices and speakers may include the assistant. To use Alexa on your iOS or Android smartphone, you can download the Alexa app for free.

Tip

For more information about Amazon Alexa skills and actions, visit our page about the Amazon Echo. A list of third-party Alexa skills is also available on Amazon's website.

Note

Alexa was featured as a top term of 2014.

What is the "A" word?

When discussing Alexa, it may be called the "A word" to help prevent it from being triggered. For example, if someone said, "I should tell Alexa to add toilet paper to my shopping list," in its presence, it would add toilet paper to its shopping list. However, if you said "A word" instead of "Alexa," it wouldn't be triggered.

Alexa logo

2. Alexa was an Amazon.com company founded in April 1996. It uses information collected from users with the Alexa browser toolbar installed to build more intelligent Internet and traffic ratings. Alexa helps determine general statistics for your web page and blog and is one of the best ways to compare your site with your online competition.

However, realize that Alexa traffic ratings are only based on users with the Alexa Toolbar installed. If you want exact traffic data for your website, we recommend using Google Analytics.

On May 1, 2022, Amazon announced it had retired Alexa.

Digital assistant, Google Home, IoT, SEO terms