Amazon has announced an integration of Alexa, a artificial intelligence voice assistant to it’s main shopping app on iPhone. The assistant controls smart home, plays music or Kindle books, answers questions, checks the news and weather, and take advantage of Alexa’s extensions, known as Skills. Users will need to hit the microphone icon at the top of the Amazon app for iPhone to wake Alexa up.
According to TechCrunch the in-app version can provide answers to basic, fact-based questions, like those about people, geography, dates, music, sports, and more. Alexa can also spell, define words, complete conversions, and make simple calculations. Amazon’s “flash briefing” can read you the news, and Alexa can check on weather and traffic conditions nearby.
With over 10 000 “skills”, which are accessible in the Shopping version of Alexa, but users need to have the Amazon Alexa app installed as well. Amazon has also integrated Alexa with other devices such as the LG refrigerator and even Huawei’s Mate 9 smartphone. It is reported that Alexa is Amazon’s way of challenging Siri, but it’s also a way for the company to make its digital assistant available to even more people.
Alexa dominated the scene at CES 2017, showing up on products ranging from smart TVs and refrigerators, to sleep-aid systems and home alarms.
Staff Writer
