Alexa (from Amazon) gains support for Apple’s Podcasts app

Alexa (from Amazon) gains support for Apple's Podcasts app

Apple continues, step by step, to advance its strategy to transform its podcasts in more than just a detail in your service catalog. The newest step on this path has arrived today: Amazon has announced that its digital assistant, Alexa, is already able to integrate with the Apple app / service.

The integration is simple: the user only needs to connect his Apple ID to his Amazon account through the Alexa application; from there, you can ask the assistant to play your favorite Apple Podcasts programs and episodes; all the usual commands, such as «continue where I left off» or «go back 30 seconds» also work.


Apple Podcasts app icon

All of your podcast history and progress is synced to Apple Podcasts on your iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Mac. You can also set up the Apple platform as the default podcast provider for Amazon Echo – this way, you don’t have to specify each command that you want to access Apple Podcasts to hear that content.

Note that the “you” in the previous paragraphs is probably a poetic license: for now, Alexa’s integration with Apple Podcasts is exclusive to users in the United States. Unfortunately, there is still no information about the international expansion of the resource. Still, the news deserves celebration: we are talking about the first integration of the Apple podcast platform with an external service – we hope this is just the beginning.

Spotify also gains integration

To give you an idea of ​​how fierce the fight is between Apple and Spotify, the Swedish service also today announced the integration of its podcasts with Alexa.

The features are the same as those offered to Apple: you can connect your Spotify account to the Alexa app and synchronize your progress, listen to your favorite podcasts or set the service as the default; for now, the whole thing is only available in the US, too.

via 9to5Mac