Among Alexa's lesser-known abilities: You can ask the digital assistant about COVID-19 symptoms

If you're one of the 60 million or so Americans who own a smart speaker – yes, that's about 1 in 4 adults – you already know the basics of these trendy hands-free gadgets. Enable the speaker with its "wake word" – such as saying "Alexa" for an Amazon Echo device ($29-up) – and then ask a question to receive an immediate answer in a friendly, human-sounding voice. The device can do things as simple as acting as a timer to delivering directions, traffic, recipes, music and podcasts, so it's easy to appreciate the value of an always-on virtual assistant. And hey, it's also cool to simply ask one to turn on the lights or turn down the temperature, and it just, well, works – if you have connected compatible devices, that is. Apple Notes:5 incredibly useful things you didn't know it could do You might be home a lot more and leaning on these smart speakers during the coronavirus pandemic, so here we examine a few lesser-known things you can do with your Alexa-enabled speaker.