Amazon Opens Alexa Up To Other Hardware Developers

Amazon’s suite of Echo products could end up at other hardware companies, with the eCommerce giant announcing it’s making its technology available to those that want to integrate Alexa, its voice-activated personal assistant.

According to a report, Alexa is now in Huawei’s Mate 9 and is in the Amazon iOS app. The report noted hardware makers will eventually find a way to integrate the Alexa software into future products.

“With this new reference solution, developers can design products with the same unique 7-mic circular array, beamforming technology and voice-processing software that have made Amazon Echo so popular with customers. It’s never been easier for device makers to integrate Alexa and offer their customers world-class voice experiences,” said Priya Abani, director at Amazon Alexa, in an interview.

In March Amazon announced Alexa, its virtual digital assistant, was getting embedded into the Amazon app. On the company’s website, Amazon said Alexa will work on Amazon’s iOS app to answer 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 bestselling 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 Feb. 22, according to Wired.