When in trouble as a child were you ever informed to only speak when you’re spoken to? That’s kinda how we feel about the Alexa assistant on the Amazon Echo speaker.
While incredibly helpful and rarely worthy of our scorn, it’s preferable to request information rather than have Alexa blurt it out unprompted while the adults are having a conversation.
However, pretty soon Amazon may change all that by bringing push notifications to Alexa-enabled devices according to a report from The Information on Thursday.
Related: Amazon Echo tips and tricks
That means devices like Echo will be able to alert you to incoming notifications without saying the wake word.
While it may seem like a useful addition to Alexa’s skill set, there’s plenty to consider here. For example, Alexa can be pretty loud when you’ve been listening to music at high volume through the Echo speaker.
The push notifications would not only interrupt the music, but perhaps conversations.
There are areas where it would be greatly beneficial as August, the maker of smart locks already integrated with Alexa voice commands, points out.
“It’s on our wish list that when Alexa does have push notifications, the Echo speaker would notify you that someone is outside your door,” said CEO Jason Johnson.
Amazon is yet to comment. Do you think preemptive voice notifications would be desired in some cases? Share your thoughts below.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
