- How to Use Alexa on a Mac If your machine doesn't run Windows 10, you can't download Alexa, but you can use the Alexa app in your browser.
- You can use these Alexa skills when you want to impress your family - even family you won't be able to spend time with this holiday season. These features require little to no setup, and they're.
You can adjust the set point for your entire home or for any room in your home. Or you can check the current temperature or set point temperature for any room. All you have to do is ask Alexa. Get the perfect temperature without moving a muscle.
For those of us building a smart home, we all face the same problem: Which digital assistant to use? Between the vast libraries of skills and abilities of the two biggest players, Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa, it can be tough to choose. But the good news is that you actually don't have to. You can comfortably live with both assistants under one roof thanks to these helpful tips.
Use both at the same time
You've got a Google Home at one end of the living room and the best Echo speaker, Amazon's Echo (third-generation) at the other—which one is worth talking to all the time? The answer is both. Both Google Assistant and Alexa offer plenty of connected home prowess. For the most part, they're both capable of answering the same questions, executing the same smart home commands, and performing the same tricks. This is precisely why it's so hard to choose between the two.
You shouldn't have any trouble using a Google-enabled smart speaker placed next to one of Amazon's Echo speakers. I've used both at the same time to control the same connected smart home accounts and answer the same questions without any issue. However, if I find that I prefer one device for a set of voice-controlled tasks, I will mute the other so that there is no room for error. Granted, both assistants respond to different wakeup words ('OK/Hey Google' and 'Alexa').
If you want to use both Google Assistant and Alexa to control your smart home, you can pair both of their respective apps with your third-party devices with nary an issue so long as you plan on asking one assistant at a time for help. The only time this won't work is if you have a device like the Amazon Echo Plus (second-generation), which acts as a smart home hub. In this case, Zigbee-compatible devices paired through the Amazon Alexa app aren't configurable with Google Assistant.
Decide who belongs where
If you happen to be in a situation where you're currently living with Google Assistant and Alexa, take a second to survey which assistant's answers you prefer with oft-used commands and which device fits best into your particular usage scenario. Debian 9 flash.
For instance, you might find the Nest Mini is a better smart speaker to have in the kitchen area because it's got great sound quality for a small speaker and faster response times from Google Assistant that's discernable over the sizzle of the stove.
Alternatively, the Amazon Echo Dot (third-generation) might perform better in the common areas where homework is done since the speaker delivers noticeably low-quality audio playback (though is much improved over previous generations of Echo Dot speakers).
A video-enabled smart display like Amazon's Echo Show 8 or Google's Nest Hub Max should be placed where it will get the most use and be accessible to anyone who wants to use the video calling feature, stream content from YouTube TV and Prime Video, watch recipe videos, and more. We think either smart display works best in the kitchen.
On the other hand, a larger speaker like the Google Home Max is better suited for big spaces like the living room or playroom where dancing and grooving take place, since it's got a big sound.
Keep it maintained
The best way to live peacefully with both Google Assistant and Alexa under one roof is to keep track of what you're setting up as you're doing it. IFTTT is great for setting up straightforward smart home automation, but they can complicate things further if you have too many formulas set up that effectively perform the same action.
As with any smart home, if you have a ton of connected stuff set up inside your dwellings, make sure to keep everything updated so that all of your assistants maintain a level playing field.
Learn more about everything that works with Amazon Alexa and everything that works with Google Assistant.
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macOS Catalina introduces Voice Control, a new way to fully control your Mac entirely with your voice. Voice Control uses the Siri speech-recognition engine to improve on the Enhanced Dictation feature available in earlier versions of macOS.1
How to turn on Voice Control
After upgrading to macOS Catalina, follow these steps to turn on Voice Control:
- Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, then click Accessibility.
- Click Voice Control in the sidebar.
- Select Enable Voice Control. When you turn on Voice Control for the first time, your Mac completes a one-time download from Apple.2
Voice Control preferences
When Voice Control is enabled, you see an onscreen microphone representing the mic selected in Voice Control preferences.
To pause Voice Control and stop it from from listening, say 'Go to sleep' or click Sleep. To resume Voice Control, say or click 'Wake up.'
How to use Voice Control
Get to know Voice Control by reviewing the list of voice commands available to you: Say 'Show commands' or 'Show me what I can say.' The list varies based on context, and you may discover variations not listed. To make it easier to know whether Voice Control heard your phrase as a command, you can select 'Play sound when command is recognized' in Voice Control preferences.
Basic navigation
Voice Control recognizes the names of many apps, labels, controls, and other onscreen items, so you can navigate by combining those names with certain commands. Here are some examples:
- Open Pages: 'Open Pages.' Then create a new document: 'Click New Document.' Then choose one of the letter templates: 'Click Letter. Click Classic Letter.' Then save your document: 'Save document.'
- Start a new message in Mail: 'Click New Message.' Then address it: 'John Appleseed.'
- Turn on Dark Mode: 'Open System Preferences. Click General. Click Dark.' Then quit System Preferences: 'Quit System Preferences' or 'Close window.'
- Restart your Mac: 'Click Apple menu. Click Restart' (or use the number overlay and say 'Click 8').
You can also create your own voice commands.
Number overlays
Use number overlays to quickly interact with parts of the screen that Voice Control recognizes as clickable, such as menus, checkboxes, and buttons. To turn on number overlays, say 'Show numbers.' Then just say a number to click it.
Can You Control Alexa From Mac Air Conditioner
Number overlays make it easy to interact with complex interfaces, such as web pages. For example, in your web browser you could say 'Search for Apple stores near me.' Then use the number overlay to choose one of the results: 'Show numbers. Click 64.' (If the name of the link is unique, you might also be able to click it without overlays by saying 'Click' and the name of the link.)
Voice Control automatically shows numbers in menus and wherever you need to distinguish between items that have the same name.
Grid overlays
Use grid overlays to interact with parts of the screen that don't have a control, or that Voice Control doesn't recognize as clickable.
Say 'Show grid' to show a numbered grid on your screen, or 'Show window grid' to limit the grid to the active window. Say a grid number to subdivide that area of the grid, and repeat as needed to continue refining your selection.
To click the item behind a grid number, say 'Click' and the number. Or say 'Zoom' and the number to zoom in on that area of the grid, then automatically hide the grid. You can also use grid numbers to drag a selected item from one area of the grid to another: 'Drag 3 to 14.'
To hide grid numbers, say 'Hide numbers.' To hide both numbers and grid, say 'Hide grid.'
Dictation
When the cursor is in a document, email message, text message, or other text field, you can dictate continuously. Dictation converts your spoken words into text.
- To enter a punctuation mark, symbol, or emoji, just speak its name, such as 'question mark' or 'percent sign' or 'happy emoji.' These may vary by language or dialect.
- To move around and select text, you can use commands like 'Move up two sentences' or 'Move forward one paragraph' or 'Select previous word' or 'Select next paragraph.'
- To format text, try 'Bold that' or 'Capitalize that,' for example. Say 'numeral' to format your next phrase as a number.
- To delete text, you can choose from many delete commands. For example, say 'delete that' and Voice Control knows to delete what you just typed. Or say 'Delete all' to delete everything and start over.
Voice Control understands contextual cues, so you can seamlessly transition between text dictation and commands. For example, to dictate and then send a birthday greeting in Messages, you could say 'Happy Birthday. Click Send.' Or to replace a phrase, say 'Replace I'm almost there with I just arrived.'
You can also create your own vocabulary for use with dictation.
Create your own voice commands and vocabulary
Create your own voice commands
- Open Voice Control preferences, such as by saying 'Open Voice Control preferences.'
- Click Commands or say 'Click Commands.' The complete list of all commands opens.
- To add a new command, click the add button (+) or say 'Click add.' Then configure these options to define the command:
- When I say: Enter the word or phrase that you want to be able to speak to perform the action.
- While using: Choose whether your Mac performs the action only when you're using a particular app.
- Perform: Choose the action to perform. You can open a Finder item, open a URL, paste text, paste data from the clipboard, press a keyboard shortcut, select a menu item, or run an Automator workflow.
- Use the checkboxes to turn commands on or off. You can also select a command to find out whether other phrases work with that command. For example, 'Undo that' works with several phrases, including 'Undo this' and 'Scratch that.'
To quickly add a new command, you can say 'Make this speakable.' Voice Control will help you configure the new command based on the context. For example, if you speak this command while a menu item is selected, Voice Control helps you make a command for choosing that menu item.
Create your own dictation vocabulary
- Open Voice Control preferences, such as by saying 'Open Voice Control preferences.'
- Click Vocabulary, or say 'Click Vocabulary.'
- Click the add button (+) or say 'Click add.'
- Type a new word or phrase as you want it to be entered when spoken.
Learn more
- For the best performance when using Voice Control with a Mac notebook computer and an external display, keep your notebook lid open or use an external microphone.
- All audio processing for Voice Control happens on your device, so your personal data is always kept private.
- Use Voice Control on your iPhone or iPod touch.
- Learn more about accessibility features in Apple products.
Osx resize image. 1. Voice Control uses the Siri speech-recognition engine for U.S. English only. Other languages and dialects use the speech-recognition engine previously available with Enhanced Dictation.
Can You Control Alexa From Mac Air Conditioning
2. If you're on a business or school network that uses a proxy server, Voice Control might not be able to download. Have your network administrator refer to the network ports used by Apple software products.
