Amazon Alexa may be largely considered to be one of the best digital assistants out there, but users haven’t been able to interact with Alexa using their voice on their iPhone. Thankfully, that is now changing — Amazon is finally allowing iOS users to control Alexa with their voice.
The move to Android and iOS marks a big push for Amazon into third-party operating systems. Android users have had voice control since the beginning of the year, and at the time Amazon promised that the feature would be coming to iOS “soon.” Of course, you won’t be able to use Alexa natively on iOS — Apple simply doesn’t allow third-party digital assistants to get the same treatment as Siri — but you will be able to simply open up the Alexa app to ask Alexa questions. The update will be rolled out over the next few days, so if you don’t have it just yet, you will soon.
Like Alexa in your Amazon Echo, Alexa on your phone can do all kinds of things. For starters, you can use it to control your connected smart home devices. On top of that, you can ask it about things like the weather and access any of its 40,000-plus skills. Alexa on iOS and Android also has a visual component to it — if you ask about the weather, you get a visual representation of the answer on your phone. If you ask about your calendar events, you see your upcoming appointments.
It makes sense that Amazon would launch the feature on Android and iOS. Because of the fact that the company doesn’t have a decently large mobile user base of its own, it faces an uphill battle against the likes of Apple and Google, who have large user bases that have Google Assistant and Siri available to them in their pocket. Because of that, launching Alexa on mobile seems like the best way for Amazon to proceed in its digital assistant endeavors.
Alexa has been getting increasingly popular over the past few years. Mobile aside, the digital assistant is available in a range of speakers, plus it’s now coming to cars and kitchen appliances too.
