Amazon is looking to get Alexa onto virtually every device that you use every single day, and that includes your laptop. Currently, Amazon has an Alexa app available for Windows, allowing you to use Alexa on your laptop. Which can be pretty useful, especially if you are not a big fan of Microsoft’s Cortana assistant. Which is not the best digital voice assistant out there right now.
So how do you use Alexa on your Windows PC? We’re going to walk you through how to use Amazon Alexa on your PC today, it’s quite simple actually.
How To Download Alexa On Your Windows PC
First things first, open up the Microsoft Store.
Then search for “Alexa”. It should be the first result. It will have the developer’s name “AMZN Mobile LLC” listed.
Once you find the Alexa app, tap on the “Get” button on that page. That will install Alexa onto your PC.
It’ll take a minute or two to install the app on your laptop – depending on your Internet speed. It’s about 13MB.
After it is installed, click on “Launch”. Or you can search for it in your Start menu.
How To Use Amazon Alexa On Your Windows PC
Now that you have installed the Alexa app on your PC, you’re going to need to give the app permission to use your microphone.
After you’ve granted permission, you’re going to need to sign into your Amazon account.
Now that you’re signed in, it’s going to need permission to run in the background. Just grant it permission and you’ll be all set.
A lot of PCs will not support the Wake Word for Alexa, which is probably a good thing. The last thing you would want is for Alexa to hear her name while you’re watching a YouTube video and then take over your PC. Now that it is set up, it’ll work similar to a smart speaker, but inside your PC.
You can ask Alexa for things like your Flash Briefing, the Weather, Traffic conditions and much more. You can even use Alexa to control your smart home devices like your smart light bulbs, or smart thermostat, to name a few. Which is a pretty nice thing to have.
Wrap Up
Having an Alexa app available on Windows might seem a bit surprising. But since Cortana and Alexa became best friends, Amazon was able to make an Alexa app to work on Windows, which is pretty cool. Unfortunately, this is not available on Mac, and it may never be – thanks to Siri. So Windows’ users are in luck.
While Alexa isn’t super helpful on PC, it is nice being able to tell Alexa to play something on Amazon Music or Spotify without having to do it yourself. Or asking Alexa for the weather while you check on your email and such. It is really good for multi-tasking, allowing you to get multiple things done at once. Hopefully the functionality of the Alexa app will improve over time, but for now, it’s basically just a voice assistant, no visuals included.