Starting today, the Huawei Mate 9 will have Amazon Alexa on the device. The flagship phablet is receiving an OTA update that brings Amazon’s personal assistant to the device. Once you have the update and initiate Alexa, there are a wide range of things you can do from your phone with it. According to the Press Release, this includes things such as:
- Home Automation: Mate 9 with Amazon Alexa makes it possible to manage your smart home even when you’re on-the-go by controlling lights, thermostats, locks, fans, sprinklers and more.
- Games/Trivia: Mate 9 with Amazon Alexa can make every trip more entertaining with games like Jeopardy, Magic Door and Twenty Questions.
- Shopping: Mate 9 with Amazon Alexa makes it easy to get more done using just your voice — Quickly create lists, order items to be sent to your home, get food delivered or have your favorite coffee ready with Amazon voice shopping, Starbucks, Pizza Hut, Dominos, Amazon Prime restaurants, and more.
- Fitness/Health: Mate 9 with Amazon Alexa helps travelers stay fit with access to skills like 7-Minute Workout, FitBit and Stop, Breathe & Think.
- News: Mate 9 with Amazon Alexa is a convenient way to stay informed with access to news anytime via Flash Briefings from NPR, CNBC, Reuters, Fox News, The Skimm, WSJ, AP, BBC, CNN, and many more.
- Entertainment: Mate 9 with Amazon Alexa puts entertainment in reach with access to a wide array of podcasts and Audible content.
Huawei announced at CES in January that Alexa would be coming to the phone as the assistant battles between Google, Amazon and even Microsoft heat up.
The addition of Alexa by Huawei is an interesting one. Most OEMs in the Android world are layering in Google Assistant (or Google themselves are doing it) which has the ability to always listen. All indications are that the Alexa integration on the Huawei Mate 9 is an app and not able to do the always listening. This is the same issue that Cortana from Microsoft faces on Android too.
