We’ve shared all sorts of ways the Amazon Echo can help make your life as a busy parent a whole lot easier, but one we didn’t include was how you can use it to make your grocery list. Turns out, with a simple app download, you can use Alexa to create a smart, categorized shopping list that you can email or text to yourself (or anyone with whom the list is shared).
Related: 44 cool things you can do with the Amazon Echo
Just this morning on our Recipe Rescue Facebook group, a bunch of members shared how they use Alexa combined with the AnyList app (which also works with Siri too, by the way) to create their shopping list. Simply download the free app, then enable that skill with Alexa. Then, all you need to do is tell Alexa to “add milk to your AnyList shopping list” and it will do just that. But what’s extra cool is that the app will carefully categorize your items so they’re easy to find when you’re in the store.
All you’ll need to do is pull up the list on your app, or if your partner is stopping, text or email them the list so they have it. If they’re already on the app, you can share the list so they can add items too.
Related: How to turn off voice purchasing on the Amazon Echo
The only downside: make sure your kids don’t figure out how to add items. If your kids are like mine, you’ll end up at the grocery store with 14 ice cream flavors on your “frozen foods” list.
Oh my heck, this is AWESOME! I meal plan before shopping and have spent years flipping between the apps for my calendar, Pinterest (where I save recipes my family likes), and Grocery Gadget (really great shopping list app)…this does all that & more. We recently added a couple Alexa’s to the house and were using her list function but it added one more place for me to check while getting things ready to shop. Allowing Alexa to auto-add to my regular shopping list is so helpful. The premium version is definitely worth the price and I usually balk at paying more than a dollar or two for apps.
PS, once you sync your lists between AnyList and Alexa you can rename your lists for different stores. “Alexa, add ______ to the Target list”, “Alexa, add _______ to the Lowe’s list”, etc.
this appears to be only for iOS (apply device) users. Please so specify, or is your entire blog only for iOS device users?
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Some of our app reviews are for iOS, some for Android, some for both. However there are a lot of reasons that we cover more iOS apps (the majority of our users and families in general have an Apple device at home, better apps overall, more consistency between devices, developer preference) and happy to do an update on that. -Eds
My grocery list freezes up in store and will not move up and down so I can see entire list. When I get home with wi-fi connection, I can’t even get the list to come up so I can delete articles. I actually have to turn my iphone off and reboot to get the list part of Alexa to work.
Any suggestions?
Have you found a solution to this problem? I’m having the same issues and it’s extremely annoying to have to keep turning my phone off and on.
I have exactly the same problem. Too bad no one who knows the answer (Amazon?) can be bothered to tell us what to do.
I suspect it’s a processor overload for many smartphones. My list freezes for a couple of minutes and then (presumably, when it catches up on all the housekeeping associated with its launch) the app starts working fine. Hopefully, as phones get more powerful or as Amazon improves it’s app, the problem will go away.
Mine freezes for about 2 minutes and then starts working. I think it’s a matter of my phone’s processing power and Amazon having too much code to load at launch time. Hopefully, both will improve with time.
I screenshot my grocery list so it can be pulled up in pictures.
I have established lists for a few stores and am able to add items I need to buy in each store. The problem comes when I am in the middle of adding or deleting items either at home or in the store, Alexa freezes and I have re-start my iPhone. Any suggestions would be most appreciated as this happens quite often and I have re-set the installation.
Thank you
Our Alexa (Echo Dot 2nd Gen) tells me “Hmm, I can’t do that” when I ask her to add an item to our grocery/shopping list. It worked before but doesn’t now. How can I make it work again without a third party app?
I too have this issue. Did you ever get this figured out?
Can my husband and I add items to the same list?
We are using Google home right now, and due to voice recognition it adds things to seperate lists based on who is making the request! And there is no way to use the same list (we spent an hour trying to make it work).
I’ve turned off voice recognition in our Alexa devices and this has fixed this “person specific list” issue.
How can I stop Alexa organizing my grocery list into areas like ‘baking, dairy, etc. I just want my list in the order I entered it – not the way she sees it.
Hit the 3 dots in the top right corner – Hide categories
I know how to set my shopping list to “Hide Categories” but it reverts to sorting in “Store Layout”, so I have to choose “Hide Categories” every time I go into the shopping list. How do I set this permanently please?
The Shopping List skill is good. There are also IFTTT skills that enhance the skills. I also wanted to point out that it does not add multiple quantities of the item. For example if you say add 2 cases of water, it adds water.
My wife has her shopping list on Alexa. Unfortunately it does not always show up on her mobile phone.