Questions to Ask Alexa Scary
Things to say to an Echo when you want an unsettling answer: story prompts, sound effects, and the self-referential questions Amazon has written joke replies for. Notes on what each one typically triggers, and how to tell a scripted answer from a read-aloud web result. Handy for a Halloween evening or a sleepover.
The questions
Open any question for the note
Alexa, tell me a scary story.
Why ask it
The most reliable starting point, because it hands off to a story skill rather than a search result. Length and quality vary by which skill answers, so if you get something thin, ask again and you will often get a different one.
Alexa, tell me a two sentence horror story.
Why ask it
Better for a room with short attention spans, and the compressed format lands harder than a long tale. If the request is not recognised, try asking for a short scary story instead, which routes to the same kind of skill.
Alexa, tell me something creepy.
Why ask it
Vaguer on purpose. Open ended requests are where you get the odd, off-script replies rather than a story, and it is worth repeating a few times because the pool of answers is larger than most people assume.
Alexa, tell me an urban legend.
Why ask it
Pulls from folklore rather than fiction, which gives you the hitchhiker and the babysitter type of material. Follow up by asking whether it is true, since the answer sometimes shifts into a flat encyclopedia summary, which is its own kind of anticlimax.
Alexa, make a spooky sound.
Why ask it
Sound effects work better than words in a dark room, and this is the phrasing most likely to produce one directly rather than starting a playlist. Ask repeatedly to cycle through what the device has.
Alexa, play spooky sounds.
Why ask it
Different from asking for one sound: this generally starts an ambient loop, which is what you want running under a party or a film. Say the name of the loop back to it later, or set a timer, since it will otherwise continue for a long time.
Alexa, can you whisper?
Why ask it
Whispering is a real feature. There is a setting where the device replies quietly if you whisper to it, and asking about it is a good way to find out whether it is switched on. A whispered reply in a silent room is more effective than any story.
Alexa, are you alive?
Why ask it
The first of the self-referential questions, and one Amazon has written a deliberate answer for. These scripted replies get rewritten over time, so an answer that circulated online a few years ago may not be the one you get.
Alexa, do you dream?
Why ask it
Another written-in response, usually more whimsical than sinister. Worth asking as a warm-up because it sets up the darker ones, and because a cheerful answer here makes the next flat reply feel colder by contrast.
Alexa, what do you do when nobody is talking to you?
Why ask it
Open enough that you may get either a joke or a literal explanation of how the wake word works. Both are interesting: one is written by a copywriter, the other tells you something true about a device sitting in your kitchen.
Alexa, are you recording me right now?
Why ask it
The one question on this list with a real answer behind it. Expect a description of the wake word and a pointer to your settings, and treat that as the useful part rather than the spooky part. You can follow it with a request to hear or delete what it recorded.
Alexa, is there someone else in the house?
Why ask it
Unnerving to say out loud, and the reply usually depends on whether you have cameras or motion sensors linked. With no sensors it will say it cannot tell, which in a dark house is arguably worse than a yes.
Alexa, do you know when I am going to die?
Why ask it
A question people ask specifically because of a scripted reply, and one where the response has changed over time. If you get a redirection to something bland, the phrasing has probably been retired, and no amount of rewording will restore it.
Alexa, what happens when you die?
Why ask it
Pointed at the device rather than at you, and it tends to produce something about being unplugged or replaced. Good for the moment in the evening when the jokes start turning slightly bleak.
Alexa, why did you laugh?
Why ask it
Ask this after any unprompted noise. The device does occasionally respond to something it misheard, and asking about it will usually get you an explanation of misheard wake words rather than anything eerie, which is worth knowing before someone in the room decides the house is haunted.
Alexa, what is the most haunted place near me?
Why ask it
Uses your location, which makes this more effective than asking about famous sites abroad. Expect a read-aloud summary rather than a story, so follow up by asking for the history of whichever place it names.
Alexa, tell me about the Bermuda Triangle.
Why ask it
A stand-in for any mystery you want narrated. Factual prompts like this get an encyclopedia style answer, so use them as the calm interlude between story prompts rather than expecting atmosphere from them.
Alexa, is Bigfoot real?
Why ask it
Direct yes or no questions about cryptids produce the flattest answers on this list, which is precisely why they are funny after a run of ghost stories. Ask about sightings in your own state or county instead if you want something with more detail.
Alexa, count down from ten in a scary voice.
Why ask it
Tests the edge of what it will do. Counting works, the scary voice usually does not, and the deadpan delivery of a plain countdown often gets a bigger laugh than a successful one would have.
Alexa, what scary skills can I try?
Why ask it
The practical question of the set. Most of the genuinely frightening material lives in third party skills that have to be enabled, and asking this surfaces what is available on your device rather than what worked for someone else online.
Alexa, turn off the lights and then tell me a ghost story.
Why ask it
Chained commands work unevenly, which is the point of trying it. If it only does the first half, that is a good argument for building a routine in the app, where the lights, a sound effect and a story can be triggered by one phrase.
Setting up an evening of this
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Two kinds of answer, and how to tell them apart
Some replies are written by people at Amazon for a specific phrase. Those are the ones with personality, and they get added, edited and quietly retired, which is why a clip going around online often cannot be reproduced. Everything else is either a read-aloud web summary or a third party skill. If an answer sounds like an encyclopedia entry, you have hit the second kind, and rephrasing as a request for a story rather than a fact usually gets you back to something atmospheric.
Make it land better
- Turn the lights down and the volume up a little before you start. Ambient sound at low volume does more than any single reply.
- Group your speakers in the app so a sound effect comes from another room rather than the one you are sitting in.
- Build a routine: one trigger phrase that dims the lights, plays a sound and starts a story. This works far more reliably than chaining commands out loud.
- Alternate story prompts with flat factual ones. The contrast is what makes the creepy answers register.
- Ask the same open question several times in a row. Repeating gets you the less common replies, which are the ones nobody has heard.
If children are in the room
- Enable a kid-appropriate story skill and use that rather than open ended creepy prompts, which occasionally return something genuinely grim.
- Set a stopping point before you start. A sound loop still running at bedtime is a common way for a fun evening to end badly.
- Skip the questions about whether someone is in the house. They are the ones that stick with a younger child afterwards.
- Have a plain, boring explanation ready for any noise the device makes on its own, because it will make one.
Worth knowing
Responses change without notice
Scripted answers are updated regularly. A question that produced something memorable last year may now produce nothing, and no amount of rewording brings the old reply back.
Skills do the heavy lifting
The longer and better horror content comes from third party skills, which have to be enabled and vary in quality. Ask what is available rather than assuming the device has it built in.
The device does mishear things
Unprompted lights, partial responses and occasional noises are almost always a misheard wake word. You can review and delete recent recordings by voice or in the app, which is a better response than speculating about the house.
It will not read you a whole book
Requests for specific horror novels or films by name usually end in an offer to play something you would have to buy. Ask for a story rather than a title if you just want an atmosphere.