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    HomeIn MediaGadget NewsAmazon Brings Voice Control to Hulu

    Amazon Brings Voice Control to Hulu

    Amazon’s Alexa lets you do all sorts of things with a voice command, from drawing up your favorite and played on your Hi-FI system, or turning off any room light in the house without you ever having to flip a switch. It also allows you to playback videos on media devices such as Fire TV. Say a favorite TV show or movie, and it’s playing on you TV in seconds.

    Now, Amazon is extending its voice-command services, recently unveiling a handful of partners that will use the Video Skills Kit to add Alexa support to their video apps. No doubt you’ll recognize some of these partners. We’re talking NBC, Showtime, Bravo, CBS, Playstation Vue and Hulu. Now all of these apps have the ability to take spoken playback commands, as well as potentially other features such as skip backwards/forwards, pause or switch live channels.

    Amazon and Hulu join forces

    Amazon hasn’t released a formal date when this function will be released, but we do know the giant retailer says it’s coming soon. The Hulu app function is speculated to launch sometime this fall.

    Since the launch of Amazon Video Skills, it wasn’t a complete stretch to predict this was coming. The Video Skill API is a new addition to the Alexa Skills Kit that lets developers add skills and capabilities to Alexa. Alexa provides a set of built-in video content search and control capabilities, such as the ability to change a channel, play a movie or search for a TV show.

    Amazon Skills allows for more Alexa function

    Providers can now teach Alexa how to interface with their video services and content. This means that they can build experiences that allow  customers to easily find and consume video content without complication. An example of this is when a customer can say, “Alexa, play ‘Hidden FIgures'”, and you won’t even have to specifying a device or a specific app. The future of voice command is here, and you don’t have to subscribe to Prime Video or a handful of other services just to see Alexa show its full capabilities.

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    David Novak
    David Novakhttps://www.gadgetgram.com
    For the last 20 years, David Novak has appeared in newspapers, magazines, radio, and TV around the world, reviewing the latest in consumer technology. His byline has appeared in Popular Science, PC Magazine, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, Electronic House Magazine, GQ, Men’s Journal, National Geographic, Newsweek, Popular Mechanics, Forbes Technology, Readers Digest, Cosmopolitan Magazine, Glamour Magazine, T3 Technology Magazine, Stuff Magazine, Maxim Magazine, Wired Magazine, Laptop Magazine, Indianapolis Monthly, Indiana Business Journal, Better Homes and Garden, CNET, Engadget, InfoWorld, Information Week, Yahoo Technology and Mobile Magazine. He has also made radio appearances on the The Mark Levin Radio Show, The Laura Ingraham Talk Show, Bob & Tom Show, and the Paul Harvey RadioShow. He’s also made TV appearances on The Today Show and The CBS Morning Show. His nationally syndicated newspaper column called the GadgetGUY, appears in over 100 newspapers around the world each week, where Novak enjoys over 3 million in readership. David is also a contributing writer fro Men’s Journal, GQ, Popular Mechanics, T3 Magazine and Electronic House here in the U.S.

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