Alexa Calling Experience: How It Works
Table of Contents Overview K4Community Voice ...
Overview
Alexa-enabled devices issued from K4Connect as part of the K4Community FusionOS platform offer various ways for residents to interact with and control their smart home devices as well as to hear community-specific content like dining menus and upcoming events in a conversational format. In addition, all of the built-in Amazon-enabled commands are also available to residents from updates on news and weather, to playing music, or even hearing Alexa tell a joke. K4Connect-issued Alexa devices do not, however, allow for custom skills to be added to the device. So, if a resident asks for information or issues a command that isn’t supported either by the K4Community skill or standard Amazon-enabled skills, the request or command will not be fulfilled.
If the resident has their own personal Alexa device and would like to also have access to all of the K4Community-supported commands and content on there, K4Connect also offers K4Community public Alexa skills that are available on the Alexa Skill Store. For more information on enabling the K4Community public skills see How to Enable K4Community Public Skills on a Personal Alexa Device.
Purpose
The purpose of this document is to outline all of the available K4Community-supported commands and the expected responses from Alexa.
Smart Home Command Structure
To interact with or control smart home devices, the resident must refer to the device and the room the device is located in by the names as they are saved in Alexa’s memory. For instance, if the resident wants to turn off the Master Bathroom Light, the command would be “Alexa, turn off the Master Bathroom Light.” Saying something like “Alexa, turn off the Powder Room Light” or “Alexa, turn off the Master Bathroom Overhead” would not achieve the desired outcome. If the name of a room or a device is changed or a new device is added to the home, Alexa will need to be familiarized with the new name in order to successfully operate the device. You can have Alexa learn new names by saying, “Alexa, discover devices.”
Name-Free Interactions
K4Connect enterprise-managed devices have been enabled with Name-Free Interaction, which means that if Alexa is asked to perform a command one of the K4Community skills can assist, she’ll use that skill to fulfill the request without the need to say “Alexa, open K4.” or “Alexa, ask K4 for [request].”
The skills can still be invoked by saying “Alexa, open K4.” or “Alexa, ask K4 for [request].”
Echo Responses
Since the Echo Dot is a speaker only, the responses will only be given audibly. The Echo Show, however, has a screen on which the responses will be summarized visually while Alexa reads the results. From here, residents can tap and/or swipe to get more detail about the on-screen content. If the screen is tapped or swiped while Alexa is speaking, she will stop speaking.
💡 Smart Home
| Device Category | Device | Command | Expected Response |
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Lighting Control |
Switches |
Alexa, turn on/off [room name] light. |
Alexa will respond, “Ok.” and turn on/off the light. |
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Dimmers |
Alexa, turn on/off [room name] light. |
Alexa will respond, “Ok.” and set the light level to 0 or 100 based on the request. |
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Alexa, dim [room name] light to [x]% |
Alexa will respond, “Ok.” and dim the light to the requested level. |
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Alexa, set [room name] light to [x]% |
Alexa will respond, “Ok.” and dim the light to the requested level. |
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⚠️ Regarding the following lamp modules: it is not recommended to plug anything other than a lamp into a dimmer lamp module. Anything with a motor that is plugged into a dimmer lamp module is at risk of damage or causing injury if it does not receive the proper amount of voltage through the lamp module. |
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Lamp Module (Switch) |
Alexa, turn on/off [room name] lamp. |
Alexa will respond, “Ok.” and turn on/off the device plugged into the lamp module. |
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Lamp Module (Dimmer) |
Alexa, turn on/off [room name] lamp. |
Alexa will respond, “Ok.” and set the level of the device plugged into the lamp module to 0 or 100 based on the request. |
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Alexa, dim [room name] lamp to [x]% |
Alexa will respond, “Ok.” and set the level of the device plugged into the lamp module to the requested level. |
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Alexa, set [room name] to [x]% |
Alexa will respond, “Ok.” and set the level of the device plugged into the lamp module to the requested level. |
📝 Community Content
| Content | Command | Expected Response | ||||||||
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⚠️ Dining Module Improvement Currently the Alexa skill will only read the dining content for the first restaurant listed in the Dining module of the Team Hub if there are multiple. K4Connect is working to improve that feature. |
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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 that day. 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 [breakfast/lunch/dinner] menu for today." |
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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. 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 [day of the week]." |
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Events |
Alexa, what are today’s events? |
Alexa will respond with the events for the current day. She will list up to 5 events and then ask if you would like for her to continue or read previous events. When she gets to the end of the event list, she will ask whether you would like for her to replay the events or stop. |
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Alexa, what are the events on 2024? Alexa, what are the events [time frame]? For example, “Alexa, what are the events next week?” |
Alexa will respond with the events for the requested date. She will list up to 5 events and then ask if you would like for her to continue or read previous events. When she gets to the end of the event list, she will ask whether you would like for her to replay the events or stop. |
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Alexa, what are my events? Alexa, what are my registered events? Alexa, what events have I signed up for? |
Alexa will respond with any future events that the resident is signed up for through the K4Community Plus App. If there are multiple residents associated with a room, Alexa will ask “Should I look up events for [resident name]?” If you say no, she’ll repeat the question for the next resident associated with that room. If she gets to the end of the list, she’ll respond, “These are all of the users who are associated with your device. Please try again.” |
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Alexa, when is [event name] [time frame/day of week]? For example, “Alexa when is Zumba next week?” |
Alexa will respond with events that match the name of the event given and provide the day of the week, date, and time of the matching events. |
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Alexa, when is the next [event name]? |
Alexa will respond with events that match the name of the event given and provide the day of the week, date, and time of the nearest approaching instance of that event. |
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Notices |
Alexa, what are today’s notices? Alexa, today’s notices. Alexa, what are today’s announcements? Alexa, what are the announcements? Alexa, today’s announcements. |
Alexa will respond with any active notices entered into the Team Hub by community staff. If there are no notices, she will respond, “Currently there are no community notices. Please check again later.” |
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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. |
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Standard Information and Functionality
| Information or Functionality | Command | Expected Response |
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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. |
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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.” |
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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. |
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News |
Alexa, what’s in the news? Alexa, what’s the news? Alexa, news. |
Alexa will respond with popular headlines from ABC news. |
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Date and Time |
Alexa, what day/time is it? |
Alexa will respond with the time or date as requested. |
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Alexa, what's the date tomorrow? |
Alexa will respond with the following day’s date. |
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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. |
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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. |
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Alexa, play [favorite local radio station]. |
Alexa will play content from the radio station requested. |
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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.” |
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Alexa, add/remove [x] minutes/hours to/from the timer. |
Alexa will edit the timer to add/remove the amount of time requested. |
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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. |
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Reminders |
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.” |
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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. |
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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. |
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Trivia |
Alexa, what happened today in history? |
Alexa will respond with a fact about the current date in history. |
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Alexa, how old is [famous person]? |
Alexa will respond with the age of the person requested. |
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Alexa, what year did Washington cross the Delaware? |
Alexa will respond with the year Washington crossed the Delaware. |
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Alexa, when is the next full moon? |
Alexa will respond with the date of the next full moon. |
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Silly |
Alexa, give me a random fact. |
Alexa will respond with a random fact. |
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Alexa, what is your favorite color? |
Alexa will respond with her favorite color. |
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Alexa, sing Happy Birthday. |
Alexa will respond, “Okay, let’s do this!” and proceed to sing the Happy Birthday song. |
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Alexa, I’d like to buy a vowel. |
Alexa will respond, “Okay, but I don’t take IOUs.” |
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Alexa, tell me a story. |
Alexa will respond with a short story. |
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Alexa, can you do an impression? |
Alexa will do an impression. |
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Alexa, flip a coin. |
Alexa will tell you whether the coin flip was heads or tails. |
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