Amazon Alexa app goes live in India ahead of Echo release

The Amazon Alexa app is now available on Google Play in India. The app is vital to setting up Amazon’s lineup of smart speakers and it just so happens that those are launching in India too. In addition to speaker setup, the app can show you your previous searches, display the currently playing music, and set up new skills. 

To beef up the functionality of the Alexa assistant in India, Amazon teamed up with local companies to create India-specific skills. These companies include NDTV, Ola Cabs, Saavn, Sportskeeda, Syska, and Time of India, among others. This means you can ask for your tech news from NDTV or current events from the Times of India with a simple voice command. Amazon says that there are already 10,000 skills available in India. 

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For music playback, you’ll have access to Amazon Music, Saavn, and TuneIn at launch. Currently, Amazon Music isn’t working and all requests are being handed off to Saavn. NDTV reports that TuneIn is also reporting back with errors at this time. This could just be some first day jitters for Alexa since it’s launching in a new territory.

If you currently own an Echo device and want to gain access to the newly offered skills, you’ll need to set up your Echo from scratch. In addition to the new skills, doing this will also give you access to things like local weather, traffic reports, and more. During the setup, you can choose English (India) from the four possible languages and you’ll need to switch your residence to India. 

Interestingly enough, the Alexa app also gives users the option to set up an Amazon Tap. The Tap isn’t available in India yet, but if you’ve imported one, you should be able to set it up and have it work smoother. Maybe we’ll see the Tap hit India soon too.

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