You can now ask Alexa to print things out for you

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Amazon’s voice-activated assistant gained a new skill today. You can now ask Alexa to print out documents for you. But don’t get your hopes up too high. It can’t print everything. Instead, Amazon designated a list of commands of things it can print.

The options are limited at this time, but some of the things you can have it print for you are things like your shopping list, crosswords, recipes, Soduku puzzles, and weirdly enough, lined paper. Yea, the choices here are pretty limited and lame, but I’m guessing the company has plans for more functionality later down the line.

Currently, the ability to print with Alexa is only available with HP, Canon, Brother, and Epson printers. If you need to see if your printer is supported, more details can be found here. On top of an Alexa-compatible printer, you’ll need a second-generation Echo speaker or newer.

From here, you’ll just need to add your printer to Alexa. This can be done by asking Alexa to scan your network for devices, or simply just say: “Alexa, discover my printer.” Once it’s found, the printer is added like any other smart home device—pretty straight forward stuff.

Here’s a quick rundown of some of the things you’ll be able to ask Alexa to print:

General

• Alexa, print my shopping list
• Alexa, print my to-do list
• Alexa, print a test page
• Alexa, print graph paper
• Alexa, print lined paper

Crosswords and Games

• Alexa, print a crossword puzzle
• Alexa, print me today’s crossword answers
• Alexa, print me last Sunday’s crossword
• Alexa, print a Sukodu puzzle

Children

• Alexa, print a first-grade addition worksheet
• Alexa, print a third-grade multiplication worksheet
• Alexa, print a fourth-grade solar system worksheet
• Alexa, print a coloring page

That’s it. This new skill is ready to be used starting today. While I wish there was more added functionality to this, the ability to quickly print things on the fly using Alexa is a nice touch. Let’s just hope the company adds more printing commands in the next coming months. This can actually be a useful feature.

Do you find this useful? Have any thoughts on this? Do you plan on asking Alexa to print things for you? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• You can now pay for your gas with Alexa at Exxon and Mobil pumps
• Go turn these Alexa settings off right now
• Alexa can be hacked with a simple link
• Apparently, people want Alexa to have a sexier voice

Kevin Raposo

Kevin is KnowTechie's founder and executive editor. With over 15 years of blogging experience in the tech industry, Kevin has transformed what was once a passion project into a full-blown tech news publication. Shoot him an email at kevin@knowtechie.com.