The smart speakers market has seen a constant one-on-one between Amazon’s Echo and Google’s Home. For a while, Amazon had a US$50 alternative, the Echo Dot to the relatively expensive Echo. On 4th October, Google unveiled a smaller and cheaper alternative to the Google Home, called the Home Mini for a price of US$50. In April of 2017, the Google Home got the ability to recognise different voices in the home and have personalised responses. Amazon has announced that Alexa can do the same thing.
This basically means that if there are three people in the house and you ask Alexa to call a friend, Alexa will look through your profile your contacts by recognising the voice. Same thing will happen with calendars and even the playlists. You can set up voice recognition using the Echo, Echo Dot, or Echo Show. Users are asked to read aloud 10 phrases, and Alexa will then use that data to create a voice profile. After that’s done, voice profiles work across other Echo devices and most of the Alexa-powered third party apps.
Amazon says:
Once you set up the feature, Alexa will learn your voice (versus your spouse/partner/roommate’s voice) and be able to deliver a more personalised experience. Today the feature is available for calling/messaging, flash briefing, shopping, and the Amazon Music Unlimited Family Plan, and it’ll be rolling out to additional Alexa features in the future.
Amazon recently announced the entry of the Echo, Echo Dot and Echo Plus in India. The purchase can be done via an invite only as of now. The cheapest of the three is the Echo Dot priced at Rs 4499.
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