Alexa, the voice assistant floated by Amazon and admired by many, will now soon be seen solving your shopping woes. Amazon, via an official update, has announced that it will be adding the Alexa voice assistant to its main shopping app, thus finally exposing the former, to a much larger audience.
So what exactly will Alexa do on the Amazon app you ask ?
Well, while it will of course work as a text-to-speech option for you when you browse through the online store, it won’t just be limited to that. Alexa will also help you make orders at the convenience of your voice, by saying things like “Search for paper towels”, or “Add shampoo to my cart”etc.
However, what makes this integration even more interesting, is the fact that you will able to perform certain account functions as well — right with the power of your voice. For example, you can simply say “Track my last order” and Alexa will do the exact thing for you. Or, you can simply make a reorder of a previous order by saying something like “Reorder my paper towels”, and it will do that for you.
And while those were some shopping only functions, Alexa will continue to perform those basic functions it does via its mobile app. For example, the integrated version can provide answers to basic, fact-based questions, which could hover around people, geography, dates, music, sports, and more, says Amazon. Alexa can also spell, define words, complete conversions, and make simple calculations. Amazon’s “flash briefing” can read you the news, and Alexa can check on weather and traffic conditions nearby.
So why put in a voice assistant — which BTW already has its own mobile app — inside a shopping app ? I mean, you could simply go to the Alexa mobile app and do all the stuff we just talked about.
The play here, is the fact that Amazon is looking to basically market Alexa, to a wider audience and show folks like us, that Alexa is much more than yet another virtual assistant talking funny stuff to you. Alexa, till date, has been fairly limited in usage. With this integration to the Amazon app, the virtual assistant could get some much needed jump in reach and usage.
Interestingly (or rather awkwardly I should say?), Amazon hasn’t mentioned a word about a possible integration into the Android app. We’ll wait to hear from Amazon on the same soon.
