This article was published on March 9, 2018

Amazon now lets you talk to Alexa without saying ‘Hey Alexa’ EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.


Amazon now lets you talk to Alexa without saying ‘Hey Alexa’ EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.

Amazon is today giving Alexa perhaps its most useful update since its inception: You can now speak to the assistant without saying “Hey Alexa” for every single command.

The feature, called Follow-Up Mode, simply allows Alexa to listen for another command for five seconds after your last request. That should make asking Alexa to perform several actions a lot less repetitive, although you still can’t use multiple commands in one sentence like you can with Google Assistant. You can also end the conversation by saying ‘thank you,’ adding a dose of friendliness. Or you can just say ‘stop’ if you’re feeling curt.

The feature is currently opt-in, so you’ll have to turn it on from the Echo’s app settings, but it’s a welcome addition. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Amazon make this the default behavior in the future; it just makes sense. Here’s hoping Google follows suit.

Via CNET

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