One of the top use cases for Amazon Alexa is its ability to quickly summarize the day’s headlines via its customizable “Flash Briefing” skill. Now, according to Techcrunch, Amazon is rolling out a new feature that will allow Alexa device owners to get more in-depth news from their preferred news provider, with this week’s launch of “long-form news.”
Currently, the new feature works with news from Bloomberg, CNBC, CNN, Fox News, Newsy and NPR, Amazon says.
Getting the news is already a top voice activity among smart-speaker owners. According to a 2018 Adobe survey, 46 percent of voice assistant users ask their smart speaker for news. And today’s Alexa Skill Store lists more than 5,000 voice apps in its News category, which indicates some level of consumer demand for this sort of content.
But sometimes users want more than just a set of quick headlines. That’s where Alexa’s in-depth news feature aims to help.
Amazon says that voice commands like “Alexa, tell me the news,” “Alexa play news” or “Alexa play news from…” followed by the source’s name, will now launch in-depth news sessions featuring stories curated by the news provider. This can include stories from NPR’s most popular radio shows, CNN’s top headlines, Newsy’s video news and others.
Customers can listen or watch all the news stories or move through the different stories with verbal commands like “Alexa, next” or “Alexa, skip” to jump ahead.
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