Technology
Alexa will soon be able to launch Android and iOS devices with voice commands
Amazon is working on a new feature for its Alexa voice assistant, which will let the company launch Android and iOS apps using voice commands, a first for Amazon's assistant, and a bold extension of its strategy to place Alexa as a platform-agnostic alternative to Apple's Siri and Google Assistant. Named Alexa for Phones, the latest feature is being released today in a preview form.
For example , Amazon imagines users on either an iPhone or an Android device asking Alexa to open Twitter and search for a hashtag, and then the app will let Alexa 's companion do the job of opening the app and entering the search word.
The findings will then appear on the screen instead of being read aloud. Another example that Amazon offers is the use of a voice request to launch TikTok and start a hands-free video recording (in case you 're shooting yourself).
It's a new form of engagement that Amazon hopes will catch up with and help better place Alexa as a viable rival to Apple and Google's digital assistants, all of whom are deeply ingrained in their respective operating systems and therefore have richer access to applications and system-level functionality.
Amazon tried and failed to launch its own phone back in 2014 with a forked version of Android. And while its smartphones, the Echo family of apps, and the Fire TV line of streaming devices continue to use more advanced versions of the forked OS, Amazon also struggles with the fact that it can not directly access customers on mobile devices without first going via Apple and Google.
Hampering the adoption of such a feature is the fact that while Alexa might be more popular in the smart home, developers already have to handle two competing digital assistants that are more commonly used on phones. You can already use Siri to order Uber or ask Google Assistant to play a BoJack Horseman episode on Netflix. App developers now need to customize these integrations to work with Alexa to help the feature — or at the very least, take Alexa 's skills (if they exist) and adapt them to work on a new app launch format. But that's why Amazon releases in a demo form before making it more widely available as a beta and then as a fully baked product ready for customers.
Amazon has a number of other press releases from Alexa today coinciding with the Alexa Live show. These include a beta for Alexa's more efficient conversational AI model that will enable users to speak more naturally to the assistant and upgrade the technology used to create Alexa's (called APL) interfaces that will enable enhanced audio apps to better Alexa's browser-based games.
Amazon is also introducing a ability resumption feature so that you can pause for a while to continue performing a task and check in with Alexa on the progress of your previous search. Finally, Amazon boasts a fast beta connect feature that will let developers launch Alexa 's skills from mobile phones, websites, and even advertising, as well as the ability to make purchases on Echo screens or from Amazon.com.
