Amazon has unveiled a new experience in Alexa that lets you open an Android or iOS app and interact with it directly using your voice. The feature is called Alexa for Apps, launching today in developer preview.
Alexa for Apps will allow users to make voice requests using the Alexa app, phones with Alexa built in, or Alexa mobile accessories to activate certain functionality within mobile apps. That means the new experience expands the capability of custom skills in order to support various use cases. For example, you can ask Alexa to launch Twitter and find specific hashtags. The Twitter app will then open and display relevant results based on your voice command. Another example is when you ask Alexa to start recording with TikTok, the app will then trigger that functionality in a hands-free manner.
Alexa for Apps can also give users more visual information about an app, such as viewing a driver’s location after booking a ride using the Uber skill.
The new feature can be implemented with any app with activities that can be opened with deep links. It is also being integrated into experiences for TikTok, Yellow Pages, Uber, Sonic, Zynga, and Volley, among other apps.