Smart speakers are taking over the world one country at a time. The Amazon Echo will soon be made available in both Spain and Italy, and at around the same time, Sonos and Bose will both offer up their own Alexa-enabled devices in those two markets as well.
In advance of this availability, Amazon has announced that developers now have the option of building voice commands for folks in Italy and Spain using the Alexa Skills Kit (ASK). Skills created will be made available to customers on the European continent once Echo makes its way across the ocean later in 2018. Of course, that means that Alexa now supports both Italian and Spanish, so developers can create skills that work in their native languages. For the time being, Alexa also speaks English, German, Japanese, and French.
Existing Alexa skills can also be extended to support Italian and Spanish, helping developers to reach a broader user base. And Alexa Voice Services (AVS) will also be made available in the two European nations later this year, allowing developers to “launch Alexa-enabled products in Italy and Spain with access to the Italian and Spanish language model and regional services like Alexa skills.”
This latest expansion makes sense as Alexa was introduced to the French market not so long ago. At the time, Amazon created a new Alexa experience in order to help it integrate more seamlessly into French culture, with Alexa rattling off local news, weather, and other information. We can only assume that when Alexa launches in the other European countries, it will do the same. The addition of Spanish to the Alexa family has been long awaited, as it not only opens Alexa up to the market in Spain, but in much of South America as well. After all, Spanish is one of the most commonly spoken languages in the world, and its availability could help Alexa and the Echo gain popularity across several nations.
Alas, it’s still not entirely clear when we can expect the Echo to reach either Spain or Italy, but we expect that it will happen in the next few months.
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