As Amazon prepares to put its Echo device in front of America’s collective face, it appears to be getting some more bells and whistles that will make it appealing to more people.
Amazon has already teased a Super Bowl ad for the device, which features Dan Marino and Baldwin with the hashtag #BaldwinBowl.
This week, we learned that Echo is gaining new Spotify support, which instantly make is more useful to a lot of music fans as a smart speaker. Spotify Premium subscribers in the U.S. can now listen to music on the device, operating it by voice command.
Now, The Verge is reporting that you can also use the device to order an Uber. Andrew J. Hawkins reports:
Uber is announcing Friday that its application program interface, or API, has been integrated with Amazon’s smart home hub. The update may be the purest manifestation of Uber’s mission to make getting you from point A to point B completely seamless. After all, what’s easier than speaking the words “call me an Uber” into thin air, and having the car show up minutes later? This could be the provenance of germaphobes everywhere. (Of course, you’ll still have to touch the Uber’s door handle.)
Users will be able to tell Alexa “request me a ride,” “call me a ride, “get me an Uber,” and other similar things, according to the report.
Uber also recently gained integration with Facebook Messenger.