Amazon Announces Voice Interoperability Initiative with Leading Technology Companies

Amazon, Baidu, Sony, BMW, Microsoft, Bose, Tencent, Orange, Salesforce, Harman, Logitech, Verizon, Sonos, Spotify, Sound United, and more are joining forces to promote choice by supporting multiple, interoperable voice services on a single device. The idea is to offer multiple, simultaneous wake words, so users can access multiple voice services by simply saying the corresponding wake word – from Alexa and Cortana to Orange’s Djingo, Salesforce’s Einstein, and more.

Amazon announced that Alexa, the voice recognition engine that powers the Amazon Echo range of smart speakers, is now available for Canada, along with three Alexa-enabled devices: Echo, Echo Plus, and Echo Dot. The expansion also means that the Alexa Skills Kit (ASK) and the Alexa Voice Service (AVS), enabling developers to build voice experiences for Alexa users will now be available for English speakers in Canada.

A pioneer in portable speakers, Ultimate Ears now announced its new Ultimate Ears BLAST and Ultimate Ears MEGABLAST speakers, both featuring Amazon Alexa. The Logitech-owned brand joins the smart speaker craze with an evolution of its own popular portable speaker designs now with voice control. The new portable, wireless, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth speakers combine 360-degree sound capabilities with hands-free voice-control, for at home and on-the-go applications.