Alexa will now remind the user’s tasks at the time he specifies
The Amazon Echo is no more just a speaker. The newest update to Amazon’s voice assistant, backed by an artificial intelligence platform named Alexa, is now much more than just another Bluetooth speaker.
The device, merged with Alexa’s smarts, is also a personal assistant, a smart home controller and turns out to serve the vital necessity for its users. The update, which will rolls out on Thursday, gives Amazon Echo owners the ability to schedule reminders for the first time, as well as the ability to name any timers you set.
The smart Wi-Fi-connected speaker performs several functions including managing your calendar, reminding you of upcoming events, and even keeping a list of which songs you’ve heard. Alexa will now remind the user’s tasks at the time he specifies.
Like other voice-activated assistants, Alexa waits for the user to call on her to perform tasks. Once activated, by calling her name, Alexa is ready to obey the user’s spoken orders.
For instance, saying, “Alexa, remind me to pick up the Rihan from school at 4 pm” will schedule an alert for later in the day. Alternatively, one can set a reminder for a particular day (“Alexa, remind me to buy breads and eggs on June 12”) or day of the week, “Alexa, remind me to buy a birthday gift for Sam on Friday”.
But Alexa does not understand commands like, “Remind me to buy groceries when I get home.” And reminders are not synced across Alexa-enabled devices — a user will not hear a reminder set on one of Amazon’s Echo speakers come from another Echo speaker. Also, there is no way to sync reminders with third-party services like Evernote and Todoist.
The Echo can carry out commands using apps and services that are otherwise unaffiliated with Amazon. Some of them include Evernote, Gmail, Spotify, Todoist, and Wunderlist. Connecting your Echo to these other tools is actually quite simple.
There is an easier way to distinguish between multiple timers now. Alexa now supports named timers as well. It supports multiple timers running at once, for everything from laundry to kitchen activities like cooking, baking, thawing, and marinating. Setting timers on the fly, without using your hands, is incredibly useful, but the new installation of Amazon would let the user name the timers by simply saying “Alexa, set a laundry timer,” or “Alexa, set a cake timer.” Alexa will even let you know which timer is going off when the time comes.
The new reminder and timer features come after the announcement of iCloud support in Alexa — its first integration with an Apple service — and Alexa Calling, which lets its users call and message any Alexa user in his phone’s contact list.
The update also includes new developer-centric improvements like Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) tags that let app creators control Alexa’s intonations — including whispers, expletive bleeps, and emphasis — a bit better than before.
Also, there is a good reason for all the improvements — Apple is expected to announce a Siri-powered smart speaker at its Worldwide Developers Conference next week. Amazon, no doubt, wants to make sure its upcoming Echo Show measures up to the competition.