Today’s big Amazon event was all about the hardware, but Amazon kicked things off with a few extra tricks. Among the cooler features rolling out for the smart assistant in the coming weeks is improved contextual understanding. One piece that’s coming in the next few weeks is the ability to understand when the user needs Alexa to be quiet.
The company demonstrated the command “Alexa, play a lullaby.” When whispered, the assistant will whisper back at the user and play a quiet song at a quiet volume. It’s not exactly a breakthrough feature (though it’s pretty adorable), but it’s a clear demonstration of a lot of the work that’s been going on in the backend to make Alexa smarter and more conversational.
The new feature will be part of routines coming specifically for kids as part of the Freetime for Kids addition, rolling out soon for Alexa. These, among a slew of other additions announced today, are a big part of Amazon’s big push to make Alexa and the Echo a bigger part of the home experience, including the intercom feature that was announced for the line last year.
Check out our full coverage from the event here.