From planning your day to wishing friends, here are top 10 popular Amazon Alexa skills

Echo, which is enabled with Alexa, is widely used amongst a wide range of smartphones, According to data provided by Amazon. The US company launched Alexa with 13 skills in November 2017 to manage and control smart devices. As we enter 2019, Alexa can now perform over 70,000 programmed tasks.

Let's look at the 10 most popular skills of Amazon Alexa in 2018:

Plex

Plex is a popular media management tool through which you can ask Alexa to play a movie, a television show, or some music. Just say, “Alexa, play the first episode of Game of Thrones Season 7”, and without lifting a finger, you can enjoy the media content.

TrackR

TrackR, as it reads, is an app that tracks your phone using GPS. Just shout, ‘Alexa, ask TrackR to find my phone”, and the assistant will ring the device for you. This can be an essential skill for the ones who often forget where they keep their phones.

Hue

Phillips Hue, the smart lighting system uses Amazon’s virtual assistant by providing a variety of ‘lighting modes’. Shout ‘Alexa, turn on the romantic lights”, and your room will light up with the coloured lights you chose on Hue.

Ola/Uber

Booking a ride just got easier as Alexa offers ride booking on the go. You can book a trip by just saying, “Alexa, book a cab”, followed by your preferred taxi-hailing services.

Birthday Tracker

This skill will tell you the birthdays of your friends and family. Once you make an account and add birthdays on the Birthday Tracker website, you can invoke the skill by saying, "Alexa, ask Birthday Tracker to get the birthdays today,” and you will never forget to wish your loved ones.

Forget Me Not

If you are one of those who has the habit of forgetting things, 'Forget Me Not’ can be a saviour. Make a list of things that you need to carry along with you, say for work, or vacation and ask Alexa to set a reminder.

Music Streaming

Music streaming is getting popular in India and Saavn was the first, followed by Amazon Music and Apple Music to provide skills on Alexa. Just say, “Alexa, play the Weekly Top 15 Bollywood Playlist” from your preferred app.

Translate this

This is a handy skill if you do not have your phone near you and want to translate something quickly. You can use the app to translate any sentence in any language. Just say, “Alexa, translate how are you in Hindi”, and the Echo smart speaker will say it out loud.

7-Minute Workout

This app is very popular worldwide for keeping track of your workout related statistics. The app provides a virtual trainer which guides you to perform various exercises. Saying “Alexa, start workout” and the virtual trainer begins your regimen.

Skill Finder

Amazon introduced a skill which introduces you to the “Skill of the Day”. It is a quick way to discover new or other skills that you need Alexa to perform the task on. Just say, “Alexa, tell me the Skill of the day” or “Alexa, what are the top skills in Utility category”, and the assistant will read out all the top skills.