Your Echo device can tip you off to deals on Amazon long before they’re available.
The retail behemoth’s virtual assistant, Alexa, will now list upcoming price drops 24 hours in advance.
The skill was introduced on Thursday, one of a number of additions that Amazon says make shopping with its digital helper easier.
According to the company, Alexa will notify Prime members when eligible products in their wish list or shopping cart are on sale.
The artificial intelligence software will also flag price cuts on items they’ve marked as “saved for later”.
That’s the section of your Amazon account where you earmark items that you want to buy in future.
When the feature is enabled, you’ll see the Yellow Ring light or a pop-up notification on your Echo device.
To learn more, just ask, “Alexa, what are my notifications?”
You can then ask Alexa to order the items when the deal is live or send a reminder.
Just say, “Alexa, buy it for me,” and when the deal is available, Alexa will use the default payment and delivery address in your Amazon account to make the purchase.
The alerts only apply to “eligible” products, and it’s unclear when this label applies, such as whether or not they’re items sold by Amazon.
They’re available now on Echo devices in the U.S. and will likely roll out to those in Europe in future.
You can activate deal notifications through the Amazon Alexa app.
Before you begin, make sure you have the most up-to-date version of the software by heading to Google Play or Apple’s App Store.
Once that’s out the way, open the Alexa iOS or Android app and tap More > Settings > Notifications.
Tap on Amazon Shopping and under Shopping Recommendations enable Deal Recommendations.
Amazon said: “We’re always looking for opportunities to build new Alexa experiences that make our customers’ lives easier.”
Alexa, a voice-activated assistant powered by artificial intelligence, was introduced in 2014 with the release of the first Amazon Echo speaker.
It’s up against Google Assistant and Apple’s Siri, which each have male and female voice options as well as a range of accents to choose from.
This story originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced here with permission.
