Can Alexa really play ambient sounds?

Ambient Noise and Sleep, Virtual Assistant

April 14, 2019

Can Alexa really play ambient sounds?

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Alexa, Amazon’s home assistant, can do almost anything that you want. She can go shopping for you, she can set appointments, she can make calls on your behalf, basically almost anything that a personal assistant can do. However, it can also do things that you would not even dream to ask another person to do… like lull you to sleep using ambient noise.

Can Alexa play ambient sounds? Why yes, yes she can, and quite effectively too. This means that if you already have an Amazon Echo smart speaker, or any Alexa-enabled speaker, you can use it to play ambient noises to help you relax and sleep. You no longer need to buy a separate machine to play ambient sounds for you, and the best part is that Alexa is handsfree so you can control it even when it is across the room from you.

What are Ambient Noises?

Ambient noises are the sounds that you hear in your environment. In movies, sound engineers use ambient noises to make the viewers feel that they are in the scene along with the characters; for instance, if the scene is in a busy street, you will faintly hear in the background the rumbling of passing cars, the murmured conversations of other people, and other sounds that you would normally hear while walking downtown.

Example of Ambient noise

Why Do Ambient Noises Make You Relax?

There are some people who just cannot relax when they are in a totally silent setting. When it is too quiet, it can be hard to ignore the thoughts that are racing through your head. You need to have a bit of background noise to ground you into the present and stop your mind from wandering off.

Do keep in mind that ambient noises, although the name might imply it, should not be played too loudly. The noises should be played at a comfortable volume. If you will be using it to help you work, it should only be loud enough that you hear it in the background, but you do not really notice it at times. When you will be using it as a sleep aid, the ambient noise level should just be loud enough to drown out other noises that might jar you awake.

What Kinds of Ambient Noises are There?

There are basically three types of ambient sounds that people use to relax and help them sleep: nature sounds, ambient noises, and white noise. Nature sounds, are obviously, the sounds that you hear whenever you are out communing with nature. Examples of these include a babbling brook, wind blowing through the trees, waves crashing onto the rocks, rainfall, and others.

White noise on the other hand are combinations of all audible frequencies, but played at different amplitudes; if you ever had one of those CRT television sets when growing up, then you would be familiar with white noise, it’s the sound your TV makes when it could not properly tune in to a channel.

Ambient noises are the unnatural noises that you commonly hear every day, but you do not really notice. For instance, the sound of muffled chattering, coffee makers hissing, and light acoustic music playing in the background of your favorite café. These are sounds that make you feel like you are in the real world.

How to Make Alexa Play Ambient Noises

Any Alexa-enabled device can play ambient noises through a “skill” called, what else, Ambient Noise. This skill is free to enable, but if you want to get access to the premium features, like mixing two ambient sounds together, then you need to pay a small fee.

Amazon Alexa and Ambient Noise

Just say “Alexa, open Ambient Noise”, and then the device will give you a list of the available ambient noises that you can choose from; you can also get a text list of noises through the Alexa mobile app to make choosing easier.

If you already have an ambient noise in mind, you just need to say “Alexa, ask Ambient Noise to play (your choice of noise)” and the device will immediately start playing your chosen ambient sound effects.

Ambient Noises has a wide variety of noises that you can choose from, and if you cannot find that one type of noise that you want, you can send the developers a request and they just might add it in the next update of the software. For now, you can choose from: