Alexa, Amazon's famous voice assistant, finally came to Brazil and already speaks fluently the language of the natives. The feature, which promises to be a good alternative to Google Assistant and Siri (Apple), was announced at a launch event last Wednesday (2) in So Paulo, and the dnetc has been around to do some testing. Among the highlights, you can use your voice to order food, listen to your favorite music or even interact with a meme. The voice assistant will be available for download from major app stores starting next Saturday, October 5th.
Amazon Echo: Line brings 'speaker' with voice command in Portuguese
Amazon Alexa in Brazil: voice assistant already works entirely in Portuguese
One of the obvious features brought by Alexa was the possibility of requesting services already integrated into daily life by voice command. To this end, Amazon has developed a collection of APIs and tools aimed at app developers integrating their Alexa services, the so-called Alexa Skills Kit. With such skills, users can order food from iFood, call a car from Uber, or check their Bradesco account, for example, without having to go through the conventional access steps.
Additionally, in addition to the featured features, Amazon Prime subscribers will also be able to shop through speech. When registering the Echo device account, it is possible, for example, to request a soccer ball and it arrives at your home.
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Asked by dnetc, Alexa General Manager Ricardo Brazil, Ricardo Garrido, stated that the commands given to the user experience will not be transformed into personalized consumption suggestions. That is, according to the Amazon executive, if the user requests, for example, a food recipe for Alexa as a frequent behavior, the resource does not use this data to build a purchase suggestion associated with the theme, such as a cookbook. or a set of pans.
During Alexa's guided tests in Portuguese, the proximity of everyday speech, pleasant voice and natural intonation draw attention. To achieve this goal, Alexa International Director Michele Butti says that direct observation of local habits was needed. According to the executive "Brazilians have very different tastes, cultural elements and humor and we wanted to build a new entirely Brazilian product". Thus, the voice assistant is programmed to recognize various types of accent pronounced in all regions of Brazil through technology. Text-to-Speech.
The company also brought new devices compatible with the voice assistant. Photo: Luciana Maline / Techtudo
The company also chose to use colloquial language in favor of the cultured norm. The choice better reflects the character conversational to generate the next experience of "chatting with a friend". So when talking to the voice assistant, you can hear English words in a "Brazilian" way, a funny response to a meme, a quote from Clarice Lispector or having Rita Lee as Alexa's favorite singer.
To use Alexa, the user must purchase one of their compatible devices. For this, the company brought to Brazil three speakers from the Echo line, who will serve as spokesperson for the voice assistant. They are: Echo Dot and Echo Show 5, which are available starting this Thursday (3), at the Amazon store and the Fast Shop. The redesigned Amazon Echo speaker can only be purchased in November. Prices range from R $ 249 (pre-sale) to R $ 699.
Alexa compatible JBL and Sony headphones Photo: Luciana Maline / Techtudo
In addition, some partner brands already bring Alexa integrated in their gadgets, such as headphones from JBL and Sony, models of smart TVs from LG and soundbar from Yamaha are some of the examples. The app itself will be available for free download from major app stores starting this Saturday, the 5th.
* The journalist traveled to So Paulo at the invitation of Amazon
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