
In October, Google announced a new feature on the Google Home platform: The ability to recognize individual users’ voices, meaning that when you ask Google to play music on Spotify, you no longer have to endure your partner’s Britney Spears playlist — even for a second — before you direct the device to switch to your own playlist. Not to be outdone, Amazon Alexa introduced the same feature around the same time period. Now, when customers in the U.S. address Alexa, the smart assistant will recognize their voices automatically.
If you say, “Alexa, play music,” she now select tracks and playlists personalized for Amazon Music customers without requiring any extra setup or enrollment. This new feature can be managed within the Alexa App under the Settings tab.
This feature builds upon a now seven-month functionality of Alexa’s. Though she was already a smarty-pants, last fall, she gained the ability to decipher whether you, your child, or a guest playing a joke on you might’ve been trying to order 10 bags of chocolate chip cookies via your Echo device. At the company’s re:Invent conference, Amazon announced that
To set up a voice profile as an Alexa user, you need to go to the Amazon
After you create a voice profile, Alexa will call you by name and give you personalized answers. So when you ask
You can delete your voice profile at any time in the app and voice profiles not used for three years will automatically be deleted. If you deactivate a device, your voice profile information will automatically be deleted from the cloud.
Updated on May 18: Alexa now recognizes individual voices automatically.
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