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Alexa Voice Integration Gets a Wearable: Pebble Core

Pebble put its best forward when it launched two new smartwatches and Pebble Core, a new non-smartwatch product the other week. Now it has got a new surprise to keep us interested ahead of the launch.

Pebble Core Gets Amazon’s Alexa

Amazon's Alexa virtual assistant will be available on Pebble Core
Amazon’s Alexa virtual assistant will be available on Pebble Core

Pebble Core, the dark horse of the group product launch will be getting Amazon Alexa integration when it starts shipping to backers in early 2017.

This move makes Core the “first fully-mobile wearable” to get the Amazon voice functionality officially.

Among the host of voice-related features are the ability to play music by way of Amazon Prime Music and iHeartRadio, weather and traffic updates, headline news reading, Pebble Health summaries, Amazon shopping and smart home device control.

All in all, it’ll do all the stuff you might otherwise be doing on a screen. And, naturally, as Alexa functionality increases, so too will its usefulness on the Core.

What else?

This move makes Core the “first fully-mobile wearable” to get the Amazon voice functionality officially.
This move makes Core the “first fully-mobile wearable” to get the Amazon voice functionality officially.

Sadly, only Pebble Core is getting Alexa voice integration, not the Pebble watches — probably due to Core’s built-in connectivity.

Therefore the smartwatches will still rely on a phone for much of their smarts, and any Apple Watch user can attest to how frustrating a mediated Siri experience can be.

Pebble is also using the opportunity to remind the potential developers that the Core’s “infinitely hackable platform” is open.

And there is no doubt that the company is hoping such hacking opportunities will lead to even more functionality ahead of the product’s 2017 launch.

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