Voice assistant secrets – smart tips for a smoother home life using Alexa, Siri and more

More homes than not own a voice assistant now – it could be on a smart speaker or a smartphone, a TV or even a coffee machine. But how much these smart home assistants are used varies wildly.

Most people probably won’t go further than asking for the weather forecast or setting timers. Others might have adopted them into a smart home ecosystem, controlling lighting, cameras and thermostats throughout their homes.

But each voice assistant has a wide range of additional functionality – here are just a few tricks that the main three players (aka Google, Alexa and Siri) can do that you can try out at home…

Amazon Alexa

Alexa's oh-so handy Birthday Tracker function makes Alexa the ultimate organisational tool. Add details with ‘Alexa, ask birthday tracker to add Emma’s birthday’. Then you can ask a whole slew of questions about birthdays in each month, set reminders, work out how old someone will be on their next birthday, and so on.

If you have several of Amazon's hands-free home tech devices in your home, Alexa’s neat Drop In function allows you to connect to them by saying ‘Alexa, drop in on the living room’ – great for calling the kids down for dinner or reminding them that they need to do their homework.

Google Assistant

If you’ve finished the milk, Google can make a shopping list for you. Download the Google Keep app to your smartphone and link it to your Google account. Then ask Google to ‘Create a shopping list’, then ‘Add milk to the shopping list’. When it comes to doing your weekly shop, you’ll find the list in the app.

Another great feature is a must if you tend to forget where you put things for safekeeping. So by saying: ‘Hey Google, remember that next door’s spare keys are in the console drawer’, Google will tell you where they are when you need to find them.

Apple Siri

Truth be told, Siri’s abilities are limited compared to the other two, but Siri still has a few neat tricks up its metaphorical sleeve. The HomePod and HomePod Mini smart speakers have built-in temperature and humidity sensors, so you can ask the device to let you know how warm or humid it is in the room it lives in.

And if you have a Siri-enabled iPhone and misplace it at home, just shout ‘Siri, where are you?’ and it will sound an alert and vibrate to help you find it.

Universal tricks that every voice assistant can do

• CALENDAR MANAGEMENT All voice assistants can schedule appointments, reminding you so you never forget important events.
• CALL FRIENDS & FAMILY If your voice assistant has access to your contacts, you can tell them who to call via your phone or smart speaker.
• SMART HEATING If you have a smart thermostat, you can control your heating via your smart assistant. Turn the heating on and off, up the heating by a few degrees, and so on...
• GENERAL UPDATES From weather forecasts and traffic reports to the news headlines, you can ask for updates whenever you like.
• MUSIC & MORE Stream music and podcasts, listen to the radio, watch a TV programme… a voice assistant can instantly sort out all your entertainment.
• SMART LIGHTING If you've invested in some smart lightbulbs, you can adjust the lights brighten them, dim them, change colour and so on - all by voice control.
• VIDEO DOORBELL If your smart hub features a screen, you can see who is at the door when the doorbell rings. If you don't, you view it though your TV screen, provided both have Wi-Fi capabilities.

Want to discover more about the functions your voice assistant is capable of? Try searching online – type in its name followed by ‘features’ and you will find a wide range of tips and tricks that you can try at home...