Amazon Alexa is being updated to get some enhanced features, including location-based home automation and task reminders, which will be rolled out to U.S. users.
Amazon Alexa is being updated to get some enhanced features, including location-based home automation and task reminders, which will be rolled out to U.S. users.
The new geo-location feature lets Alexa know where the homeowner is exactly and take actions accordingly. For instance, the light will be turned on when the homeowner arrives at home and the music will be turned off when he steps outside.
It can be connected to reminders as well. For instance, users can say “Alexa, remind me to clean the kitchen when I get home,” and the assistant will read the note and send a notification via the Alexa app when the users arrive at home.
Alexa acquires the user’s location information by reading the GPS data from his smartphone.
The assistant can also take the user’s work back home, by supporting several email accounts such as Google’s Gmail, Microsoft’s Outlook.com, Hotmail and Live.com. Users can ask the assistant to read the message out loud, delete emails and reply to mails by voice.
Alexa also starts to connect homeowners with local businesses. Homeowners can now ask the opening hours and phone numbers of local businesses. And then a “call them” follow-up command will directly connect the users to the restaurants or shops.
There are some other updates for Alexa Routines: A sleep timer to play music like white noise, sleep sound or relaxing music for a period of time for users having trouble falling into sleep; a dinnertime routine rings a bell via all Echo devices to tell the family to come down to eat; a command “Alexa, I’m leaving” to the smartphone app will trigger the “I’m on my way home” alert to Echo devices at home.
Alexa is offering more and more commands for home automation. If homeowners utilize all the features and program them on their own, they are likely to feel the benefits of Alexa in their daily lives. Nonetheless, it still leaves the question of how many users are aware of the new features and are ready to program all the settings.