Amazon has started rolling out a new optional Alexa feature, called Alexa Hunches, that allows the voice assistant to make suggestions about the current state of your smart home devices. For example, if you say “Good night” and you’ve forgotten to turn off a smart light that is usually off at night, Alexa will alert you and offer to turn the light off. If you say “Set alarm” on your way out and your backdoor smart lock is unlocked, Alexa will let you know. Read more ›

Amazon has added a new option to the Alexa app that allows you to select your specific TV provider. Doing so enables Alexa to answer questions about your TV service. Questions about TV shows or networks will include times and channels that are available on your specific TV provider. Read more ›

Amazon is rolling out a new Alexa feature called “Answer Update” that will notify you when the voice assistant learns the answer to a question you’ve asked which it was unable to answer at the time. The feature was first spotted by Voicebot and later confirmed by Amazon to TechCrunch. If you ask Alexa a question it can’t answer, there’s a chance it will ask if you’d like to turn on the new Answer Update feature. Alternatively, you can say “Alexa, turn on Answer Update” to turn the feature on immediately, assuming it has already rolled out to your devices. Alexa should respond by saying “Okay, if you ask me a question and I don’t know the answer, but I find out later I’ll notify you.” You can turn off the feature at any point by saying “Alexa, turn off Answer Update.”