Google Now isn’t the only digital assistant available on Huawei’s Mate 9 anymore. Today, the company announced an over-the-air update that will bring Amazon’s Alexa to all Mate 9 smartphones. The move comes not even a week after Amazon updated its Shopping app for iOS to include Alexa, allowing Apple smartphone users access to the assistant even if they don’t own an Alexa-enabled Amazon device.
Alexa won’t interfere with Google Now, the default digital assistant on Android smartphones, primarily because using Alexa on a Mate 9 requires two apps: the Huawei Alexa app and the Amazon Alexa app. The Amazon Alexa is necessary when you buy an Echo, Tap, or other Amazon smart home device, and without a device, it lets you install Alexa Skills and set preferences for the digital assistant. Huawei’s Alexa app, on the other hand, is simply a controller—you need to launch this app before you can ask Alexa anything.
This is similar to how Alexa works on an iOS device: you need to open the Amazon Shopping app, tap the microphone button, and then wake Alexa with a command. Both tout the on-the-go usage of Alexa thanks to this kind of integration, but while you can use Alexa anywhere you can bring your smartphone, it’s certainly not a hands-free service. Huawei hasn’t ruled out the possibility of hotword recognition, which would allow the handset to “hear” you asking Alexa for help even when the app isn’t open, but that feature isn’t available right now.
Some of Alexa’s other features also aren’t available, like alarm setting and music playback. Alexa’s iOS integration is more extensive, allowing you to control your Amazon Music library, hear audio playback of Kindle books, and more. It’s odd that a number of fairly basic Alexa features aren’t included in the Mate 9 at launch, but Huawei says those features will roll out later this year.
As for what you can do with Alexa on the Mate 9 right now, it’s just the basic stuff. You can ask Alexa questions about the news, weather, and a plethora of other topics; place orders on Amazon; check your calendar; and control smart home devices even when you’re out. As long as you have Alexa-capable smart home devices, you can connect them via the Amazon Alexa app and control them by asking the Huawei Alexa app to turn the lights on, turn the temperature down, and more.
We’ve now seen Amazon’s first attempt to integrate Alexa into both iOS and Android devices. While the company seems to have found a simple solution for Apple devices with its Shopping app, it’s unclear how other Android OEMs will proceed to integrate Alexa—if at all. Samsung just announced Bixby, its own digital assistant, so it’s unlikely we’ll see any Alexa integration on Samsung mobile devices any time soon. The real question is whether users will actually embrace Alexa on a non-smart-home device and if the service can compete with the assistants already living in their smartphones.
