Amazon's new update for iPhones includes Alexa virtual assistant

Amazon’s virtual assistant Alexa is one of the competitive o the market. The AI assistant can be found on the Amazon Echo speakers and few smartphones including Huawei’s Mate 9. Now the company has decided to reach out to a bigger user community by making Alexa available on the iPhones.

Amazon rolled out an update for its app on the iOS platform that includes the AI assistant Alexa. The update is expected to roll out in stages, reaching all users in about one week.

Alexa can now be accessed by tapping on an iPhone’s mic in the search bar. The assistant helps users with several tasks such as playing music or online shopping. It can also be used used for accessing books in the user’s Kindle library, as well as songs from Amazon Music Unlimited, Prime Music, and purchased songs and albums. Amazon is expected to update its Android app as well soon.

The AI virtual assistant can also help manage smart home devices and seems to give users access to all features that are also found on Amazon’s smart speaker line.

The battle of these smart virtual assistants is about to get interesting when Samsung will launch its virtual assistant Bixby with Galaxy S8 smartphone. Currently the market includes other AI assistants such Apple’s Siri and Google Assistant.