Amazon Expands Fire TV Hands-Free Capabilities With New ‘Show Me’ Experience
Amazon announced today that they have expanded their hands-free capabilities for controlling Fire TV with Alexa-enabled devices. Now, customers can not only sift through their programming by uttering commands to Alexa, but they can also perform everyday tasks such as checking the calendar, weather, or various smart home cameras—hands-free.
All they have to do is make sure Alexa is active on their connected devices and start with the “show me” command such as “Alexa, show me my calendar” or “Alexa, show me the nursery camera,” etc.
The expanded capabilities also allow users to navigate the interface hands-free with commands like “Alexa, select #4” or “Alexa, go home” to go back to the home screen.
The new voice capabilities will begin rolling out to customers over the coming week. Customers will need a compatible Alexa-enabled device and compatible Fire TV or Fire TV Edition device. New features are not currently supported by Echo Show and Echo Spot.
The news comes almost a month after the e-commerce giant announced the launch of two new Fire TV devices: all-new Fire TV Stick and Fire TV Stick Lite.
The all-new Fire TV Stick ($39.99) is 50 percent more powerful than the previous edition and uses 50 percent less energy. While it doesn’t support 4K, it will support 1080p at 60fps, HDR, and Dolby Atmos audio. It adds a dual-band, dual-antenna wifi supports 5 GHz networks for more stable streaming.
The Fire TV Stick Lite ($29.99), Amazon claims is the most powerful streaming device under $30. Fire TV Stick Lite is 50 percent more powerful than the previous-generation Fire TV Stick.
The biggest difference from the Fire TV Stick and Fire TV Stick Lite is that it comes with Alexa Voice Remote Lite, which doesn’t let you control power and volume on the TV.