Amazon unveiled a range of new smart devices powered by its voice-assistant, Alexa, including the Echo Plus, Echo Dot, Echo Show, Echo Auto, and more. Amidst these new offerings, the company emphasized Alexa’s enhanced intelligence, announcing a slew of new skills and developer tools to further elevate its capabilities.
- Alexa Guard – Activating Guard mode, when you’re away from home, enables select Echo devices to listen for specific sounds like glass breaking or smoke detector alerts, promptly sending alerts to your device.
- Hunches – This feature adjusts Alexa’s suggestions based on your habits. It can detect when lights or other connected smart devices are not as you left them and suggest turning them on, useful after returning from a trip.
- Easy Wi-Fi Setups – Alexa connects selected Amazon smart devices to Wi-Fi with a voice command or through the Alexa app, where you can scan a barcode to seamlessly add new devices to your network.
- Local Voice Control – Featured in some Echo devices, Alexa can operate offline to activate smart home devices. However, it cannot respond to queries, stream content, or search for products in local voice mode.
- Ring and August Integration – Echo Show adds a two-way talk feature for Ring and August doorbell cameras, enabling voice-commanded communication with visitors. Alexa notifies you of visitors at Ring or August doorbell cameras.
- Alexa Routines – Beyond location and time-based routines, Alexa can perform tasks based on temperature changes or motion detection. Reminders can be set for leaving or arriving home or work.
- Virtual Cooking Coach – Alexa guides you through recipes step by step, partnering with Kitchen Stories, Allrecipes, Epicurious, Food52, TheKitchn, and SideChef for instructions.
- Multi-step Requests – Users can now add multiple items to their shopping list with a single command, eliminating the need to repeat the hotword to activate Alexa for each item. Alternatively, users can ask Alexa to adjust the volume and start a playlist simultaneously.
- Email Integration – Users can connect their Gmail, Outlook, or Hotmail account to the Alexa app. This enables the virtual assistant to read messages aloud and allows users to send replies using Alexa, making it convenient for quick email responses.
- Whisper Mode – As a playful feature, Alexa responds with a whisper when users issue commands or requests in a whisper.
- Echo Stereo Pairing & Preferred Speaker – Users can pair two Echo devices for stereo sound. Both devices must be of the same model. Additionally, users can set a default speaker, which can be either an Echo device or any Alexa-supported speaker.
- Music Notifications – Alexa notifies users about new albums or tracks from followed artists.
- Visual Alexa Blueprints – Extending Alexa Blueprints, Amazon’s platform for creating Alexa skills, this new feature enables users to craft and share personalized video messages.
- FreeTime features – Amazon introduced FreeTime previously, now adding Kid Routines, combining actions like saying goodnight, turning off lights, starting white noise machines, or setting alarms.
Amazon also announced Tidal support for Echo devices later this year. Additionally, developers interested in building Alexa-powered devices will have new tools, including a software development kit and a hardware reference design.
The company unveiled the Alexa Presentation Language, a new design language to assist developers in building and arranging skills on Alexa devices with screens. It provides guidance on text size, slideshow displays, and layout design.
Pritam Chopra is a seasoned IT professional and a passionate blogger hailing from the dynamic realm of technology. With an insatiable curiosity for all things tech-related, Pritam has dedicated himself to exploring and unraveling the intricacies of the digital world.
