You Can Finally “ask Alexa” From the IPhone Home Screen
We can all probably agree that Siri is not the best smart assistant. Wouldn’t you rather use Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa? If you’re an iPhone user, you’ve had the ability to launch Alexa on your device for a while, but it’s not as easy as calling Siri, but it’s now much easier.
Amazon recently launched a home screen widget called “Ask Alex,” which allows you to activate Alexa with a single tap. While it doesn’t let you use just a word command like you can with Hey Siri, it’s at least slightly faster than jumping to the full Alexa app.
To use the Ask Alexa shortcut, you’ll need the Amazon Alexa app on your iPhone (and you’ll need to upgrade to iOS 14 or higher). You also need to give the app permission to activate the microphone. To add a widget, press and hold the home screen you want to bind it to and tap the “+” in the upper left corner. Scroll down or type “Alexa” into the search bar to find the “Ask Alexa” widget.
Once you’ve installed the widget, all you have to do is tap on it to wake Alexa up. Please note that this is just a shortcut to the main application, not a hands-free smart speaker.
If you need to move the widget or to another home screen, press and hold the same way as in any other application.
Google Assistant is also available on iPhone via the Google Assistant app. There is no home widget yet, but you can set up a shortcut to activate Google via Siri (so you can say “Hey Siri, Hey Google”) using only your voice, without going to the app. You still need the Google Assistant app, but you can go to the Shortcuts app on your device and set up an action to launch Hey Google when needed.