Alexa Now Helps You Find Your Misplaced Smartphone

We can’t live without our mobile devices anymore, so whenever we can’t find our smartphones, we go a bit crazy. Thankfully, Alexa, Amazon’s digital assistant, can provide you with some needed assistance. When activating the new TrackR feature in the Alexa mobile app, users will be able to ask Alexa to make their handset ring, even if the device is set to silent mode.

Alexa’s capabilities are continuously expanding, but this marks the first time that a find my phone skill has been integrated to its arsenal. To be able to take full advantage of this new TrackR skill, users will have to download the TrackR mobile app into their Android or iOS powered device, or by simply requesting Alexa to enable it. Afterwards, users will need to sync Alexa with their TrackR account. Once this is accomplished, they will be able to make their phone ring just by verbally commanding Alexa to ask TrackR to search for their device. One big advantage of this new Alexa skill is that users do not have to worry about getting any new TrackR hardware in order to use it. For anybody who owns an Alexa device such as the Amazon Tap or the Amazon Echo, the skill can be had for free. 

Some users may already be familiar with TrackR’s Bravo Bluetooth tags ($30 per piece), which users can attach to their keys or wallet. And if they get misplaced, users can just make the TrackR mobile app on their smartphone make the tags produce a beeping sound. In the age of mobile, this is actually pretty clever.

Wait -- can Alexa make those Bravo Bluetooth tags beep, too? Unfortunately, not yet. But the good news is that the people behind TrackR is planning to incorporate that exact skill for the TrackR Atlas, which should launch by autumn of this year. For those not familiar with TrackR Atlas, it is a plug in device that has the ability to map out your home in the TrackR mobile app, basically allowing Alexa to tell you where to look in the house when your stuff goes missing. This means that your days of not being able to find those headphones will soon be over. 

Back in January early this year during the annual CES Show, TrackR had stated that the Atlas plugs and the Alexa skill would be made available in June. Obviously, things got a little delayed, but having the phone tracking skill up and running already should be cause for celebration, especially for those who have a habit of misplacing their handsets.