Amazon announced news in the spring that Alexa would be coming to the company’s shopping app and, after integrating it into iOS on Thursday (July 20), it announced integration with Android devices.
According to a report in TechCrunch, Alexa, Amazon’s voice-activated digital assistant, had already been integrated into Amazon’s main iOS shopping app and confirmed to TechCrunch that it’s now part of its Android shopping app as well. While Alexa already has its own app, TechCrunch speculated it is aiming to reach as many people as it can, including consumers who may not understand Alexa or what the digital personal assistant can do, which is why it’s including it in the main shopping apps.
The in-app version of Alexa can answer basic questions, provide updates on the daily news and aid in shopping for products and services. It also provides information about weather and traffic, play music and shop. The in-app Alexa can also take control of smart home devices like Echo, hail a ride from Uber and place a Starbucks order.
Back in March, Amazon announced Alexa will work on Amazon’s iOS app to ask questions, do shopping, play music and perform a host of other tasks. According to Amazon, with the updated app, users can tell Alexa things like “search for paper towels,” “reorder batteries,” “track my last order” or “find best-selling camera,” and Alexa will deliver on all the requests.
In addition to making shopping easier, Amazon said Alexa in the Amazon app can respond to commands, including “play some music,” “play the Beatles,” “play dance music” and “play my Kindle book.” Alexa can also answer basic questions, such as “When is Memorial Day?” as well as give users updates on news, weather and traffic.
The move to integrate Alexa into the Amazon app comes at a time when the number of skills being made for Alexa is exploding. In February, Amazon’s voice-activated AI assistant hit a new skill milestone: 10,000. The 10,000th skill was reportedly approved on the night of February 22, according to Wired.
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