Ditch Siri and Put Alexa on Your iPhone Home Screen Instead

You already know you can give Alexa commands on your Echo devices, but did you know that you can also talk to Alexa on your iPhone?

Siri is fine (and Apple added a couple updates for its virtual assistant in iOS 15.4), but if you would rather converse with Amazon’s trusty voice assistant, you can just add the iOS Alexa app widget to your iPhone or iPad home screen. Once you set it up, one tap brings up the assistant you’d prefer to talk to. 

It’s no big secret — nearly every smart home device on the planet works with Alexa — but for Siri and HomeKit, your options are more limited. Not to mention, Siri sometimes gets choked up and stops responding to basic requests (at least, it does on my iPhone). I’ve all but given up on Siri, and you may have as well.

Alexa, on the other hand, is nearly always available, accurate and downright friendly. And Amazon’s voice assistant even has a different name and voice option. If you love having Alexa set timers and reminders, turn on lights and answer questions when you’re at home, wait’ll you start talking to Alexa on your iPhone when you’re out and about.

I’ll explain shortly how to set up the Alexa iOS widget and use it to take Siri’s place on your iPhone or iPad. But first, a word of caution.

Read also: The Real Cost of Setting Up an Amazon Alexa Smart Home

Alexa can’t totally replace Siri, but who cares?

There are some functions only Siri can perform: changing your iPhone’s screen brightness, turning on do not disturb, etc. Basically, anything that changes the settings on your iPhone or iPad itself is off-limits for a third-party assistant.

However, there’s a lot more that Alexa can do and Siri can’t — especially if you’ve not paid any attention to whether a smart home device you bought is HomeKit compatible. My house is positively littered with smart plugs and doorbell cameras and all sorts of devices Siri can’t talk to — but Alexa can.

In the end, it doesn’t matter, since you’re not replacing Siri with Alexa. In fact, if you’ve already got the Alexa app (and you probably do), you’re not even adding Alexa to your iPhone — it’s right there in the app. All adding an Alexa widget to your home screen does, really, is put Alexa just one short tap away — but that’s enough to make adding the Alexa widget to your iOS home screen worthwhile.

How to add the Alexa widget to your iOS home screen

Widgets debuted with iOS 14 in 2020, but if you’ve never used them, all I can say is, be careful. They tend to decimate the arrangement of your home screen if you’re not careful with how you move them around.

This is basically a two-part process. First, create the widget, then move it to where you want it on your home screen. If you’re perfectly happy leaving it off to the side with all the other widgets, you don’t have to do the second part.

1. On your iPhone or iPad swipe left past the first page of your home screen, then press and hold one of the widgets until a menu pops up. Tap Edit Home Screen.

2. Tap the + in the upper left corner and either scroll until you see Amazon Alexa or type Alexa in the search box, then tap Amazon Alexa.

3. Tap Add Widget at the bottom of the screen (there’s only one option for size).

That’s the first part. If you’re happy with the Alexa widget where it is, tap Done in the upper right corner. If not, while the widgets are still wiggling, tap and hold the Alexa widget until it “picks up,” then drag it out onto your home screen and drop it where you want it to live, then tap Done.

Again, a word of warning: Moving the widget may rearrange your home screen icons, so you’ll have to go back and clean up the mess when you’re done.

That’s it! Now you can tap the Alexa widget, and your Alexa app will open — with Alexa already listening for a command. 

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