New Alexa Feature Makes Follow-Up Commands Easier

Later purchasing an Amazon Alexa-enabled device, you lot may take establish yourself proverb the wake word "Alexa" more than times in a given twenty-four hours than you lot're comfortable with. A new feature called "follow-up mode" may change that.

Now available on all hands-gratis Alexa-enabled devices set up to US English, this characteristic lets yous make follow-up requests without repeating the wake word.

"The blue indicator light on the Echo device remains on for a few seconds, letting y'all know that Alexa is active and ready for your next request," Amazon explained in a support notation. So, if you see the blue ring at the superlative of your device, you lot know Alexa is nevertheless listening.

This new feature is toggled off by default, so you'll need to enable it manually. To do that, just open up the Alexa app, get to the menu and select Settings, select your device, so scroll down to Follow-Upwardly Mode and apply the toggle to turn it on.

Amazon noted that this feature volition not work when music, books, or other audio is playing; when you end a chat with Alexa by saying "stop," "cancel," "go to slumber," or "thank y'all;" or when "Alexa is not confident you're speaking to her." Alexa will not reply to follow-up requests "if she detects that speech was background dissonance or that the intent of the speech was not articulate," Amazon wrote.

Meanwhile, Alexa has been struggling a bit as of late. The digital assistant went down for several hours before this calendar month and has been freaking people out by creepily laughing, seemingly out of nowhere.

In other Amazon news, the online retail giant but launched a new sale on Fire TV devices exclusively for Prime number members. Normally priced at $39.99, the Burn Television receiver Stick, which includes an Alexa voice remote, can now be yours for merely $24.99. The latest-generation Fire TV, which supports 4K and normally sells for $69.99, is now just $44.99. These prices are even lower than they were during the last Fire TV sale. If you lot're not already a Prime member, you can sign up for a xxx-day free trial to snag the deal.

About Angela Moscaritolo

Angela Moscaritolo

Angela Moscaritolo is PCMag's expert on fitness and smart home products. Education yoga for nearly 10 years has helped her in evaluating a range of continued wellness products including fitness trackers, heart rate monitors, rowers, smart scales, stationary bikes, strength training machines, treadmills, and more. Angela also tests smart home devices from her ranch in Florida, including air purifiers, kitchen appliances, and robot vacuums, just to proper noun a few.