Amazon gives Alexa a new iOS widget and the ability to assign reminders

The Alexa app for iOS has been upgraded to allow you to access the voice assistant directly from your home screen via a new widget. Through a new “assign reminders” skill, anyone can utilize the assistant to remind certain members of your home to complete duties.

The new Ask Alexa widget isn’t so much Alexa as it is a link directly to the iOS app, thanks to the rather limited nature of widgets on iOS. You can start making requests with a tap if you have the Alexa widget on any of your screens and have already given the Alexa app permission to use your iPhone’s microphone.

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Now those demands can be a little more specific. If all members of your home have a Voice Profile set up on the same Amazon Alexa account, Alexa now has the ability to assign reminders to them. So, if you say to Alexa, “Alexa, remind Jeff to take the lasagna out of the freezer at 10 a.m.,” Alexa will be able to send the reminder to the appropriate person at the appropriate time via the Alexa app. In Alexa’s Settings, under Your Profile, you may create profiles, and Amazon says you can give each one a relationship moniker, such as parent, dad, daughter, and so on.

Alexa gains new features and skills on a monthly basis, but Amazon said in June that it would open up Alexa to third-party developers even more. Developers will be able to design custom widgets for the Echo Show using one of the numerous new APIs.