Amazon's Alexa is now available in its iOS app

The main Amazon app for iOS is getting a big upgrade today (though it is a staged rollout so it will take a week to show up for everyone). Alexa, the company's very own virtual assistant, is now integrated into the app. You can use it by tapping the microphone in the search bar.

You can ask it questions, let it help you shop, and tell it to play some music. The assistant also has access to the books in your Kindle library, in addition to the music from Amazon Music Unlimited, Prime Music, and purchased songs and albums.

Once it starts playing media, playback controls will appear on-screen. Audio will continue to play in the background even when you've dismissed those. You can get updates on news, weather, and traffic too. And depending on which skills you add to it, Alexa is able to control your smart home devices as well. All in all, it looks like this release comes with the full Alexa feature set, as previously seen on Amazon's smart speaker line. It's unclear if Alexa will ever make it to Amazon's shopping app for Android.

Source | Via