Amazon has put out yet another useful update for its Alexa digital assistant and Echo smart speaker.
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Amazon’s quirky digital assistant cylinder just got a new cool feature aimed at book fans.
To look for eligible books in the Alexa app users have to open the left navigation panel and then select ‘Kindle Books Books Alexa can read’. You will be able to also state Alexa to go “frontward” or “backwards” whilst reading whatever of your ebooks.
Amazon said that it hopes to position Alexa as a go-to partner for the smart home.
“With Kindle Books by Alexa, you can ask Alexa to read Kindle books in your library”, explains Amazon. It also allows for voice control of iTunes, Spotify and Pandora. “You can now start a narration by saying, “Alexa, read “[Kindle book title]”, and the software will launch into a reading, albeit in a far more robotic tone than your standard audiobook narrator.
So as to halt Alexa in her tracks, one must either say “stop” or “pause”, and in order to keep hearing the voice behind Amazon’s Echo once again, one must issue a similarly self-explanatory command ( “resume” or “play”). That means it won’t play professional voices as you’d get with something like a book you bought the Audible, but it’s still a new free feature and a new way to experience books you already own.
Amazon previously purchased Audible’s audio book service, so when I saw the news in an Amazon newsletter, I figured there would be some fee to have Alexa read content aloud.
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You can find out more details about Amazon’s Echo device over at the company’s website at the link below, the device is available for $179.99.
