We ask smart speakers with Alexa to play music, podcasts, turn the connected lights on and off at home, answer those questions that come to mind and even buy through the Amazon online store. But did you know that you can also ask him to read you books. Well yes and if you are interested, so you can use Alexa to read books.
What books can Alexa read
Alexa is full of possibilities, some are well known to everyone and others not so much. Among the second, the least popular, is his ability to read books. Yes, Amazon’s smart voice assistant is capable of reading a book so you don’t have to.
When we say reading books we do not mean the use of services such as Audible or similar, which allows access to a catalog of books already narrated by other people and that are reproduced as podcasts or as they are normally known, audiobook. What we mean by saying that Alexa can read books is that she could do it with almost anyone who was associated with your account and you can have on your Kindle.
This is an important difference, because it expands the catalog and gives options to enjoy other content that does not have to be those of Audible or similar. And most importantly, it is something that you can take advantage of without having to make any additional expense.
So, to begin with, you have to know what books Alexa can read. These would be the books compatible with the Alexa reading mode:
- Books purchased from the Amazon Kindle store
- You can also tell Alexa to read the books available on Kindle Unlimited or Prime Reading
- Finally, Kindle books that are compatible with Alexa’s text-to-speech technology can also be requested to be read by the assistant.
How to read books with Alexa
Now that you know what books you can use for Alexa to read , you will surely wonder how it is done. That is, how do you ask or what should you do so that Alexa starts reading one of those books that you have and that you want her to read for you. So you can keep doing other things.
Well, to read books with Alexa the first thing is to look for them. To do this, the easiest thing is to go directly to the Alexa application on your mobile device. If you go to the Play tab you will see that there is a section called Kindle Library, that is where the books that you can tell it to read will appear.
Once you have chosen which book you want, the next step would be to tell the Amazon assistant in which compatible player you want it to do it. This is interesting because it does not limit you to the use of the Amazon Echo or other compatible speakers, you could also take advantage of the function with your mobile phone.
So, in summary the process would be this:
- Open the Alea app
- Access the Play tab
- Select title in Kindle Library
- Choose device where to play
Easy right? Well now a couple of additional details for when you want to use the function directly on your smart speaker. They are commands that once you know the books you have or have started to “read” thanks to Alexa you can ask to continue, pause, advance, etc.
Alexa commands for when you use the assistant to read books
- Alena, read me the Kindle book [title]
- Alexa, Pause / Stop / Resume
- Alexa, Skip forward / Skip back
- Alexa, Volume (1-10)
- Alexa, open my Kindle books
- Alexa, show me my Kindle books
Why won’t Alexa read my Kindle books
As you can see, using Alexa to read books for you is very simple, but that does not mean that from time to time some problems arise. If you have problems, it is most likely due to a specific failure of your Echo or Alexa-compatible device; Or that the Kindle book is compatible with the assistant and its Text to Speech function .
In the first case, if on other occasions you have read that title without problems, all you have to do is restart your smart device with Alexa. In the case of the Amazon Echo or similar you will only have to unplug them from the electrical current and reconnect them.
If by any chance the failure is still present, try asking for another title to see if it is specific to that book or generalized. If it doesn’t happen with other books, the last thing you can do is check if the book is compatible with the Text to Speech function.
As an extra bonus and without being a reading problem, sometimes the synchronization may not work between the page that you left unread and the continuation through Alexa as a reader. In that case, open the book on another device or in the Kindle reading app, bookmark the page manually, and ask Alexa to continue reading. Everything should already work without problems.
Reading books with Alexa, a more interesting function than it seems
The ability to read books with Alexa is much more interesting than it may seem at first. And it does not have to be a substitute for the very action that you could carry out with said book on your Amazon Kindle or any other electronic book reader and even on paper.
The attractive thing is that there will be times when you are interested in continuing the story you were reading, but it is not possible because you are doing other things such as housework or driving to work. In those types of situations is where this ability of Alexa can come in handy. Because you could get more done while Alexa reads .
So the only thing we can tell you is that if you have an Alexa-compatible device, try the experience for yourself and value how about it. Maybe you discover a function that you did not know and it completely changes your relationship with voice assistants.
In addition, this for the smallest of the house can also be super interesting to be able to use it to read them a story at night before going to sleep. So, in a way, they are also encouraged to read and everything that books can bring us.
