Amazon has quietly added contextual understanding to Alexa that allows the virtual assistant to understand follow-up questions. This means, if you ask a question like “who is the shortest NBA player?” and get the answer “Muggsy Bogues,” you can then ask “how tall is he?” and Alexa will know you are referring to the answer she just gave and respond with “Muggsy Bogues’s height is 5 feet 3 inches.” Another example is asking what time a local business opens and then, after being told the time, asking “what is their phone number?” without having to specify the name of the business again.

The new functionality seems to be limited right now, since it doesn’t always work when you’d expect it, but it’s a welcomed addition that makes conversing with Alexa a bit more natural. Credit goes to the reddit user who first noticed the change and to Android Police for putting it on my radar.