Amazon’s Alexa comes to Huawei Mate 9 smartphones in U.S. via update

Why it matters to you

Alexa is one of the most popular smart voice assistants, and the AI has not been attached to a smartphone in this way before. Huawei’s update gives you more control in your smart home.

Huawei is following through with its CES promise of bringing Amazon’s Alexa to its flagship Mate 9 smartphone. An over-the-air update will roll out today to U.S. models of the device, making the Mate 9 the first smartphone to come with Alexa installed.

Alexa is the smart voice assistant in Amazon’s popular Echo and Echo Dot devices. Users can call out to the assistant with the trigger “Alexa,” and can then follow up with a request to control smart home products like connected lightbulbs and thermostats. Alexa can also answer basic questions like when the next showtimes are for an upcoming film.

More: Huawei Mate 9 review

With Alexa now on the Mate 9, you can expect similar functionality. Most importantly, you can control your compatible smart home devices with the Chinese company’s smartphone. You first need to open and configure the Huawei Alexa app, which will be available after installing the OTA update. Unfortunately, voice activation does not work yet so you’ll have to rely on your finger to trigger the assistant. The company said it is working with Amazon to get this feature up and running as soon as possible.

Here are all the functions you’ll be able to perform just with your voice thanks to Alexa on the Huawei Mate 9:

• Home automation.
• Play games like Jeopardy, Twenty Questions, and Magic Door.
• Place orders from vendors like Starbucks, Pizza Hut, Domino’s, and more. You can also place orders and have products ship to your home via Amazon Prime.
• The 7-minute Alexa workout skill helps keep you fit and on your toes.
• Alexa can play news briefings from media organizations like NPR, Reuters, Fox News, WSJ, AP, BBC, CNN, and others.
• Accessing podcasts and Audible content.
• Ask for weather and traffic updates.
• Check your calendar.
• Ask general queries about people, places, and more.

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While the update only adds Alexa to U.S. Mate 9 devices, the company said the Alexa app will roll out to other Mate 9 variants in other Amazon-supported markets at a later date. If you have the assistant already, keep in mind that not all of Alexa ‘s 10,000 skills will work. Two that most definitely won’t for a long time are Timer/Alarms, as well as Music and Tunein. The company is continuing to work with Amazon to add support for all its skills.

The company doesn’t have any plans to bring Alexa to another Huawei device at the moment. We’ll update this article with more information on how to set up and use Alexa when the OTA begins to roll out.