Just when you think we can’t get any more connected, this happens: You can now vocally summon your Uber ride from your Amazon Echo device.
This is great for those people or occasions when, as The Verge put it: “tapping an app is too much effort.”
Echo is Amazon’s connected device that lets you control your lights, music, and other in-home services by talking to its Alexa app.
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Well, in truth, some initial prep work is required. Users have to set up their Echo’s location in its settings, then enable the “Uber skill” for the device, and link their device their Uber account. That is different than native Echo support, as Coins2Day explained earlier this month. Native support means that the ever-vigilent and somewhat creepy Echo device will “discover” new devices through vocal commands. In the Uber scenario using a skill, the user must go into Echo’s Alexa app to enable the needed skill and use a special voice command to turn it on. Users can then use that command to call up the service.
For more on Uber and The Super Bowl watch this Coins2Day video
Just a few days ago, Domino’s (DPZ) pizza, the self-proclaimed “recognized world leader in pizza delivery and digital ordering platforms” said we can order our (hypothetical) Super Bowl pizzas using Echo.