Amazon Alexa arrives on the iPhone

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Amazon Alexa is one cool AI assistant, and it is sad to see that the bot is locked to Amazon Alexa speakers like Alexa Echo and Echo Dot, however that might change pretty soon.

Starting today, iPhone users can interact with Alexa on the Amazon app for iOS. All you need to do is update your Amazon store app and you’re good to go.

The Assistant is being brought to the e-commerce app for helping people place their orders using their voice. Alexa will be able to search for products, place orders, or request cancellations.

However, along with this, the AI Assistant will also do a few cool things like telling you a joke, informing you about the weather, and answering your other intriguing questions, or at least try to!

Surprisingly, Alexa on the Amazon app can also __play music, as well can control IoT or Internet of Thing devices. This means you can ask Alexa to change the room temperature, or control the lighting, right from your iPhone. However, this doesn’t include locking and unlocking smart locks, as the Door Lock API isn’t coming to Alexa in the Amazon app.

Roomba- the robot vacuum cleaner is also expected to receive the Alexa skill where users can control the robot using Alexa.

Now even though Alexa might be better than Siri, the Cupertino giant’s AI assistant still gets an upper hand due to its closer integration with the operating system.

However, it surely is commendable that Alexa still adds a lot of practicality, while being a part of the Amazon store app. I guess it’s time for Apple to step up its game with Siri in iOS 11.

The update is currently available only for the US markets.