Amazon has announced that they’ve added Alexa to their Amazon Music apps in the Google Play Store and Apple iTunes App Store. You’ve already been able to summon Alexa within the Amazon shopping app and request music that way, but that was never an ideal way to access your music. Alexa’s integration in the Amazon Music apps gives you a much nicer way to use your voice to access all of your tunes.
My app displays an ad for this, but there’s no Alexa icon. I went to the Google Play store and apparently I have the latest update of the app.
Anyone else who can’t find this new feature on their Android phone? I’m using a Samsung GS7.
This morning I finally uninstalled the Music app and re-installed it, which gave me the update.
I can’t report on Android, but I can report that updating the iOS version changed “Search” to “Alexa.” Can’t wait to try this out, as I was hassling with connecting an Echo Dot in my car so Alexa could ride along. It was only worth the hassle on long road trips, so I’m excited to see how well it works. Hopefully I can leave my Dot at home now. :)
I got the Alexa button in the updated Amazon Music app (Android via Google Play Store), but I didn’t try it out. Instead, I had to uninstall the app from my phone (Nexus 5X running Oreo) because the app kept opening up and running in the background, with playback controls in the notification shade, all without any input from me. (I haven’t used the app in weeks or even months!) Even after repeated force stops, the app will close but eventually pop right back up. It even reopened after I used one of Oreo’s new features which allows you to disable an app’s ability to run in the background when not in use.
WTF, Amazon? That is not acceptable app behavior. That’s something I expect from a virus, not an app.