We Are Social launches Amazon Alexa news broadcast

Innovation
matthew.payne

Tech and news fans, rejoice: You can now access social news just by asking for it out loud – if you’ve got an Amazon Echo device.

We Are Social has joined news broadcasters including the Guardian, Mashable and Sky in trialling daily news broadcasts on Amazon Echo. Echo is a hands-free internet-connected speaker that is voice controlled. It connects to the AI-enabled Alexa Voice Service to play music, news, sports scores, weather and more.

As a forward-thinking, innovative agency, it makes perfect sense for We Are Social to give the new technology a whirl. It’s essential that brands keep pace with the way consumers access information, shop and do anything else, or they risk being left behind. Voice controlled internet could be the next big digital evolution so we’re really excited to try it out. This broadcast trial is a great way for us to better understand this evolving technology so we can better advise our clients on how they can make the most of it.

To make it work, Echo users can search for ‘We Are Social’ in the skills section of the Amazon Alexa app to find We Are Social’s ‘Headline of the Day’, and click ‘enable skill’. Once the skill is enabled, users simply need to say, ‘Alexa, social headline’ to their device. The trial will run until mid December and the daily broadcast will be available from 1pm GMT weekdays.

We Are Social is now investigating further broadcasts on additional voice-activated devices due to be released in the UK in the coming months.