Amazon has announced that its Amazon Music app on iOS and Android now comes with hands-free listening via Alexa. The update brings Alexa wake word capability to the app providing “full integration of voice capabilities”. With the new tool, users can play music by mood, activity, genre, lyrics, artist or song title, and create playlists. Additionally, all the playback controls such as pausing and skipping can be done through hands-free voice commands.
In a statement, Amazon said:
“Amazon Music first announced Alexa in the Amazon Music app for iOS and Android with a tap-to-talk function in September 2017, combining the voice-forward music listening experience that customers love on Echo devices with a rich, visual app interface. Since then, providing hands-free listening in the app has been one of the top requests by Amazon Music customers. And today, Amazon Music is making mobile music streaming even better by enabling this new functionality for customers in the US and CA.”
The new feature is available today for Amazon Music Unlimited and Prime Music users; simply download the latest version of the app from your platform’s respective app store. If you decide you don’t want the functionality, you can toggle it on and off through the app’s settings.
Availability of the new feature is limited. While the firm’s announcement states that it is available in the U.S. and Canada, the Google Play "What’s New" section states that the feature is limited to the U.S., UK, and Germany.
If you’re a user of Amazon Music, let us know in the comments if you’ve tried the new feature or whether it’s available where you live.