Supported Alexa Commands

K4Community enterprise-managed Alexa devices provide residents with multiple ways to engage with and manage their smart home system and access community-specific information such as dining menus and upcoming events in a conversational manner. Residents can also utilize all standard Amazon-enabled commands, which range from receiving updates on news and weather to playing music and enjoying a joke from Alexa. However, K4Connect-issued Alexa devices do not support the addition of custom skills. As a result, if a resident requests information or issues a command that is not covered by either the K4Community skill or standard Amazon-enabled skills, the request will not be fulfilled.

If a resident owns a personal Alexa device and wishes to access all K4Community-supported commands and content, K4Connect provides K4Community public Alexa skills that can be found in the Alexa Skill Store. For detailed instructions on how to enable these K4Community public skills on a personal Alexa device, please refer to the article: How to Enable K4Community Public Skills on a Personal Alexa Device.

Name-Free Interactions

Name-free interactions (NFI) is what Amazon calls the feature that allows Alexa to interpret a question or command and determine the best skill to use to fulfill the request or answer the question.

K4Community Name-free interactions are only available through K4Connect enterprise-managed devices. To access the K4 skill or any 3rd party skill on a consumer device, the resident can tell the device what skill to use by first saying, “Alexa, ask [skill name] [question]” or "Alexa, open [skill name]." and then giving the command or question.

For example:

“Alexa, ask SkyExplorer, when does Mars rise tonight?”

“Alexa, ask K4, what’s for dinner tonight?”

"Alexa, open SkyExplorer." > Alexa's response > "When does Mars rise tonight?"

"Alexa, open K4." > Alexa's response > "What's for dinner tonight?"

K4Connect enterprise-managed devices have been enabled with Name-Free Interaction (NFI), which means that if Alexa is asked to perform a command with which one of the K4Community skills can assist, she’ll use that skill to fulfill the request without the need to say “Alexa, ask K4...” or “Alexa, open K4.” However, the K4 skills can still be invoked with these phrases on enterprise-managed devices if desired.

Echo Responses

Echo Dot - Since the Echo Dot is a speaker only, the responses will only be given audibly.

Echo Show - The Echo Show features a display that visually summarizes the responses while Alexa reads them aloud. Residents can interact with the screen by tapping or swiping to explore additional details about the content presented. It’s worth noting that if the screen is tapped or swiped while Alexa is speaking, she will stop speaking.

Smart Home

Category	Device	Command	Response
Lighting control	Switches	Alexa, turn on/off [room name] light.	"Okay." and Alexa will turn on/off the light
	Dimmers	Alexa, turn on/off [room name] light.	"Okay." and Alexa will set the level to 100 or 0.
		Alexa, dim [room name] light to [x]%	"Okay." and Alexa will set the light level to the requested number.
		Alexa, set [room name] light to [x]%.	"Okay." and Alexa will set the light level to the requested number.
Temperature control	Thermostats	Alexa, what is the [room name] temperature?	Alexa will say the current temperature of the room
		Alexa, what is the [room name] thermostat temperature?	Alexa will say the current temperature of the room
		Alexa, what is the [room name] thermostat set to?	Alexa will say the current setpoint of that thermostat for whatever mode it is in at the time.
		Alexa, set the [room name] thermostat to [x].	"Thermostat now set to [x]."
		Alexa, set the [room name] thermostat to [mode].	"Thermostat is now set to [mode]."

Community Content

If the community has multiple restaurants, Alexa will ask which restaurant you would like to hear and then ask which menu for that restaurant.

If the community has not input any dining content for that day, Alexa will respond, “I’m sorry, but the community has not provided me with the [meal] menu for today.

Category	Command	Response
Dining	Alexa, what's for [breakfast/lunch/dinner]? Alexa, what's available for [breakfast/lunch/dinner]?	Alexa will respond with the menu content provided by the community for that meal for the current day.
Dining	Alexa, what's for [breakfast/lunch/dinner] on [day of the week]? Alexa, what's available for [breakfast/lunch/dinner] on [day of the week]?	Alexa will respond with the menu content provided by the community for that meal on the specified day.
For Dining, if the community has multiple restaurants, Alexa will ask which restaurant you would like to hear and then ask which menu for that restaurant. If the community has not input any dining content for that day, Alexa will respond, “I’m sorry, but the community has not provided me with the [meal] menu for today
Events	Alexa, what are today's events?	Alexa will respond with the events for the current day.
	Alexa what are the events on [date]? Alexa what are the events on [day of the week]? Alexa, what are the events for [time frame]?	Alexa will respond with events for the requested date (ex. November 18), day of the week (ex. Friday), or time frame (ex. tomorrow)
	Alexa, what are my events? Alexa, what are my registered events? Alexa, what events have I signed up for? Alexa, what are my events for [day of the week]?	Alexa will reply with the list of upcoming events that the resident has signed up for. If there are multiple residents associated with the room Alexa will ask whether she should look up events for [resident name]. If you say 'no', she'll repeat the question for the next resident associated. If she gets to the end of the list of residents, she'll respond indicating that those are all the residents associated with your device.
	Alexa when is [event name] on [day of week]?	Alexa will respond with events that match the name given and provide the say of the week, date, and time of the matching events.
For Events, Alexa will list up to 5 events then ask if you would like to hear more. When she gets to the end of the event list, she'll offer to replay the events or stop.
Notices	Alexa, what are today's notices? Alexa, today's notices. Alexa, what are today's announcements? Alexa, today's announcements. Alexa, what are the community notices? Alexa, community notices. Alexa, what are the community announcements? Alexa, community announcements.	Alexa will respond with any active notices. If there are no notices, she will respond, “Currently there are no community notices. Please check again later.”
Mail	Alexa, has the mail arrived? Alexa, is the mail here?	Alexa will respond and indicate whether the mail has arrived or not. Arrival of mail is indicated by community staff on the home page of the Team Hub. If the “Notify Residents” button has been clicked by a staff member, Alexa will report that the mail has arrived.

Standard Information or Functionalty

Alexa has a lot to say! This is not an exhaustive list of the standard questions and commands that Alexa can help with. Residents are encouraged to come up with new questions and commands to try out.

Information or Functionality	Command	Expected Response
Weather	Alexa, what’s the weather like? Alexa, what’s the weather? Alexa, weather.	Alexa will respond with, “Right now in [current location] it’s [current temperature] Fahrenheit…” along with the forecast for the rest of the day.
	Alexa, what’s the high/low today? Alexa, what’s the high/low temperature today?	Alexa will respond, “Today, expect a high/low of [today’s high/low temp] Fahrenheit.”
	Alexa, is it going to rain? Alexa will it rain today? Alexa, will I need an umbrella?	Alexa will respond and let you know whether rain is expected today. She may also offer to check for rain in the coming days.
News	Alexa, what’s in the news? Alexa, what’s the news? Alexa, news.	For the Echo Show, Alexa will respond with news videos and the user can choose from various news sources. Available news sources are determined by Amazon. Users can not add or remove news sources. For the Echo Dot, Alexa will respond with popular headlines from ABC news.
Date and Time	Alexa, what day/time is it?	Alexa will respond with the time or date as requested.
Date and Time	Alexa, what’s the date tomorrow?	Alexa will respond with the following day’s date.
Radio	Alexa, play [favorite band/artist]. Alexa, play [favorite band/artist] radio.	Alexa will play a radio station with music from within the genre of the bands or artist requested.
	Alexa, play [favorite type of music]. Alexa, play [favorite type of music] radio	Alexa will play a radio station with music from within the genre requested.
	Alexa, play [favorite local radio station].	Alexa will play content from the radio station requested.
Timer	Alexa, set a timer for [x] minutes/hours. Alexa set a [time frame] timer.	Alexa will set a time for the requested amount of time and start counting down. When the timer ends an alarm will sound. You can also name the timer by saying, for example, “Alexa set a 30 minute cake timer.” This can be helpful if you have multiple timers counting down at once. If a timer with a name ends, the alarm will sound and Alexa will say, “Your [timer name] timer is done.”
	Alexa, add/remove [x] minutes/hours to/from the timer.	Alexa will edit the timer to add/remove the amount of time requested.
	Alexa, cancel the timer. Alexa, delete the timer.	Alexa will cancel the timer. If you have multiple timers going she’ll ask which one you want to cancel.
Reminder	Alexa, remind me at [time] to [action]. Alexa, remind me to [action] at [time]. For example: Alexa, remind me at 3PM to take a walk.	Alexa will set a reminder for the time requested. When the reminder is triggered an alarm will sound and Alexa will say, “Here’s your reminder [name of reminder]. For example, “Here’s your reminder. Take a walk.”
	Alexa, remind me to [action] on the [time frame]. For example: Alexa, remind me to pay bills on the first of the month.	Alexa will set a reminder to repeat based on the time frame requested.
	Alexa, cancel the reminder. Alexa, delete the reminder.	Alexa will delete the reminder. If you have multiple reminders set, she’ll ask which one you want to delete.
Trivia	Alexa, what happened today in history?	Alexa will respond with a fact about the current date in history.
	Alexa, how old is [famous person].	Alexa will respond with the age of the person requested.
	Alexa, what year did Washington cross the Delaware?	Alexa will respond with the year Washington crossed the Delaware.
	Alexa, when is the next full moon.	Alexa will respond with the date of the next full moon.
Silly	Alexa, give me a random fact.	Alexa will respond with a random fact.
	Alexa, what is your favorite color?	Alexa will respond with her favorite color.
	Alexa, sing Happy Birthday.	Alexa will respond, “Okay, let’s do this!” and proceed to sing the Happy Birthday song.
	Alexa, I’d like to buy a vowel.	Alexa will respond, “Okay, but I don’t take IOUs.”
	Alexa, tell me a story.	Alexa will respond with a short story.
	Alexa, can you do an impression?	Alexa will do an impression.
	Alexa, flip a coin.	Alexa will tell you whether the coin flip was heads or tails.