• About & Contact Us
  • SEO Community

Ulancer.com

    • Latest Stories

      What is new?

    • Meet the startups that pitched at EF’s 10th Demo Day in London

      September 27, 2018

    • Rally Rd., the app that lets you invest in classic cars, raises $7M Series A

      September 27, 2018

  • News
  • How to’s
  • Writing
  • Startups
  • Jobs
  • More
    • CMS Tools
    • APPS
    • Web Resources
      • Advertising
      • Firefox
      • Scripts
      • Tools

Amazon brings voice control to its Alexa app for Android, with iOS coming soon

  • by Ulancer Contributor
  • In News
  • — 20 Jan, 2018


Amazon’s slow push into mobile is getting a lot more real this morning with the addition of voice integration into its Android app for Alexa. Up to now, the app has been little more than a way to manage settings for the Echo and other smart home devices built around its smart assistant.

The addition of voice commands means users can speak directly to their handset the way they would an Echo — to play music, trigger Alexa skills and the like. The update is being rolled out over the course of the coming days through Google Play and Amazon’s own Appstore. A similar update is also on the way for the iOS App Store, but its timing is still up in the air, likely due to Apple’s stricter vetting process.

Mobile has, of course, been a big missing piece in Amazon’s Alexa push. The company has added some select functionality on Android devices, working directly with manufacturers like Huawei and Motorola to bring it to specific devices. Though each of those offerings have been a somewhat customized solution.

Without handsets of its own, the company has had difficulty competing with the likes of Google Assistant and Siri on that front. Microsoft has taken a similar route, offering up Cortana as an add-on app for mobile devices, in order to extend its reach beyond the desktop. Last week at CES, meanwhile, Amazon announced that it was bringing Alexa functionality to Windows 10 PCs through a select number of manufacturers. 

Amazon has also, interestingly, brought some voice functionality to its mobile shopping app, while forgoing the functionality for the Alexa app until now. In spite of this, the app has become a hit on app store charts, courtesy of the wild success of the company’s Echo devices this past holiday season. 

The company has confirmed that the Alexa app in its current form does not support wake word functionality.


News source

You might also like...

  • The NeoMano robotic glove brings control back to paralyzed hands 8 Jan, 2018
  • India’s Razorpay nabs $20M led by YC, Tiger Global for its Stripe-like payment gateway 15 Jan, 2018
  • The quantum computing apocalypse is imminent 6 Jan, 2018
  • Coinbase acqui-hires Memo.AI technical team management tool 18 Jan, 2018
  • Previous story Join the TechCrunch Meetup at the World Economic Forum #TCDavos
  • Next story Spotify accidentally showed ads to paying subscribers when testing new ways to promote originals
  • RSS
    Receive Freebies & Latest Posts Directly To Your Email - it's Free!

    • Recent Posts
    • Most Popular
    • Comments
    • 7hrCggmJ-AMMeet the startups that pitched at EF’s 10th Demo Day in LondonSeptember 27, 2018
    • oNo38LV2tQIRally Rd., the app that lets you invest in classic cars, raises $7M Series ASeptember 27, 2018
    • Nearby.gifBerkanan is a Bluetooth-powered group messaging appSeptember 27, 2018
    • 2122.pngVinay Gupta to talk about Mattereum at Disrupt BerlinSeptember 27, 2018
    • slider_wp_03Best collection of WordPress Slider PluginsJuly 5, 2010
    • Joomla template builderTop 8 Free Joomla Template GeneratorsJuly 19, 2011
    • 40+ Best WordPress Plugins for Comments40+ Best WordPress Plugins for CommentsJune 18, 2011
    • wptheme2A Collection of Free WordPress ThemesJuly 11, 2010
    • Rithika Kumar on:5 Key Reasons to Choose WordPress for your Business Website
    • Ruslan Winter on:TransferWise’s next partnership could be with U.K. challenger bank Monzo
    • Sammy May on:Curve, the fintech that connects all your cards to a single card and app, gets full consumer launch
    • Sammy May on:Curve, the fintech that connects all your cards to a single card and app, gets full consumer launch
  • Staff Picks

    • slider_wp_03Best collection of WordPress Slider PluginsJuly 5, 2010
    • Joomla template builderTop 8 Free Joomla Template GeneratorsJuly 19, 2011
    • 40+ Best WordPress Plugins for Comments40+ Best WordPress Plugins for CommentsJune 18, 2011
  • Recent Posts

    • Meet the startups that pitched at EF’s 10th Demo Day in London
    • Rally Rd., the app that lets you invest in classic cars, raises $7M Series A
  • Search Our Blog

  • Ulancer is an insightful freelance blog and resource site. We provide intuitive articles that cover Photoshop tutorials, time-saving management tips covering a broad range of topics. We also have an active freelance community forum, there you can meet other freelancers that share your common interest, socialize and chat about freelance trending news as the occurred.

© Copyright 2013 Ulancer.