The Weird Things Aussies Keep Asking Alexa

Amazon Alexa, aka the smart speaker that you secretly ask all your dumb questions, is celebrating three years in Australia. As it turns out, you probably weren’t the only one asking it for silly things over the past few years.

New stats gathered from Amazon’s first three years in Australia have revealed just how we’re using our smart speakers at home.

What do Australians want from a smart speaker?

Apparently, most of us, ie. 48%, are simply asking Alexa for the latest news and weather reports. But it only gets weirder from there.

The stats suggest that Aussies are requesting Alexa for insults four times as much as we’re asking for compliments. Also, did you know Alexa has some nifty mods like Pikachu Talk? I did not, but apparently many other Australians do because requests grew 270% year on year.

Requests also grew for totally normal robot things like asking Alexa to fart and talk like a dog. (We really have been stuck at home too long.)

Aussies also asked Alexa to stream music and in 2021 the top request was Tones and I’s ‘Dance Monkey’. That logic checks out seeing as I haven’t been able to get that song out of my head for any of the past 365 days.

Alexa also does some admittedly cool things like controlling your smart lights and doorbell, which is predicted to really take off in the next five years.

What else can you ask Alexa?

Now that we know what people have been asking for, let’s find out what you should be asking Alexa.

Digital Trends has put together some other weird requests to get a little joy out of your virtual assistant.

• Ask Alexa to “meow”. Just like barking, Alexa can also make cat noises to confuse your pets.
• Alexa can “cluck like a chicken”
• “Alexa, who is the voice of Alexa?” – if you went to get really meta.
• “How much do you weigh/how tall are you?” You can get personal, Alexa won’t mind.
• “Alexa, do you know Siri?” Loaded question.
• “Alexa, roll a die” – this is helpful if you’re playing a game
• Chewbacca Chat activates Alexa’s Chewie voice.
• Tell Alexa to “blow up” and see what happens
• You can speak to Alexa in movie prompts, too. Try, “Alexa, I am your father.”
• Did you also know Alexa can live translate into other languages? Very useful.

Get creative with your Alexa requests and she’s sure to be creative back. Don’t you just love it when you can interact with your inanimate smart speaker?

If you want to see the result of these prompts then go and grab yourself an Alexa from Amazon!