AI-powered intelligent assistant Alexa is now able to create reminders, Amazon announced today.
Now anyone with an Alexa-enabled device can say “Alexa, remind me to stay woke in 10 minutes” or “Alexa, remind me to tell my dad I love him on June 10.”
Amazon also announced today that Echo or Echo Dot users can create countdown timers with custom names. All scheduled reminders and timers can be viewed in the Alerts and Alarms section section of Alexa app.
The ability to create reminders is a longtime requested feature from Alexa fans, like adding calendar events used to be for Google Assistant users until Google finally added that feature in May.
Companies like Amazon and Google are in a race to sell smart speakers and give their AI assistants more language processing and computer vision muscle, but it seems that in some basic, not-so-sexy areas, like adding calendar events or setting reminders, the companies have only recently taken steps to catch up.
News of reminders and custom timers comes a day after Alexa gained the ability to integrate with Apple’s iCloud calendar, part of a larger effort this year to integrate with major calendars like Office 365, G Suite, and Outlook.
