Alexa Now Provides More Detailed News Briefings

One of the simplest things that you can ask Alexa to do for you is to read the news. However, voice assistants like Alexa normally only provide a summary of the news that’s only good when you’re in a hurry. What about the times when you want to just kick back and catch up on all of the news in detail? Alexa will now be able to help you out with that as well.

Amazon is rolling out a new feature for Alexa in the United States which will enable the assistant to provide users with more detailed news briefings. It will provide long-form news from sources such as CNBC, Bloomberg, CNN, Newsy, NPR, and Fox News.

In order to get long-form news, users have to give commands such as “tell me the news” or “play news” and then name a specific outlet. It will be possible to skip stories if you don’t particularly want to hear every single news story in detail.

The audio response will be available on all Alexa-powered devices. Users will also be able to get video from CNBC and Newsy but only on devices that have a screen, such as an Echo Show. This feature is currently limited only to users in the United States and Amazon hasn’t said if and when it would be made available elsewhere.

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: Gadgets
Tags: Alexa, Amazon