China’s Huawei have prepared an OTA update for the phone (US only) that will add support for Amazon’s Alexa to the device.
With this new integration, users of the Mate 9 in the US will be able to perform several new tasks with the phone. This includes, but is not limited to — shopping on Amazon (for Prime members), listening to podcasts, integrations with IFTTT, etc.
Listening to music (Amazon Echo style) is still not possible, but should be in the ‘next year’ or so according to Huawei.
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Nonetheless, it’s an interesting update and one that will make aware a lot of other manufacturers about possible partnerships with other brands.
“Adding Alexa to the Mate 9 seemed like a no brainer. We have four mics with noise cancellation [on the Mate 9], this tech will help a lot Alexa to hear the commands easily from different angles”, Huawei said to GSMArena.com
Any Alexa users here? What do you think of this update?