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Amazon Echo can now answer follow-up questions similar to Google Home

Amazon has quietly updated its Alexa assistant for its Echo speaker so it can answer contextual questions similar to the Google Home speaker.
By
December 30, 2016

While the Amazon Echo speaker, and its Alexa digital assistant, have been available for over two years now, it seems that it is just now adding a feature that’s been available for owners of the more recent Google Home speaker since it launched in early November. Specifically, Amazon Echo can now respond, at least in limited form, to follow-up questions that are given after the first inquiry on the same subject.

Amazon Alexa commands: Our guide to everything Alexa can do
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Amazon Echo Alexa speaker stock photo (1)

What does this mean? Basically, if you have the Echo, you can say, “Alexa, who is the governor of Texas?” and it will say, “Greg Abbott.” Then if you follow up by saying, “How old is he?”, the Echo and Alexa should respond with “59”. This feature was first noted by Reddit users earlier this week, but it apparently only works with some inquires, so it’s doesn’t quite work as well as Google Home.

Indeed, one of the biggest selling points of the Google Home is that you can start a normal conversation with it and it will, hopefully, respond in kind through multiple exchanges. This kind of feature is only just now rolling out to the Amazon Echo devices, via Alexa, but so far it would appear that Google Home has the edge on this particular feature.

What do you think of the Echo adding this feature that’s already available out of the box for Google Home? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!