Even though Apple started the smart assistant trend with Siri and Google followed up with Now, Alexa has taken a lead with Amazon Echo, the first true voice based smart assistant for homes. Echo is Amazon’s hands free speaker which connects to Alexa voice service and allows you to talk to it to control smart home devices, ask questions, play music and much more.
Lexi connects to the same Alexa voice service as Echo hence providing the same features in the form of an app. While Echo costs $179.99, Lexi is a good way to test drive Alexa to see if it is really what you want. You can use any of the 900+ features that Alexa supports, including the ability to order items off Amazon and control smart home devices. However, at the moment, it does not connect to Amazon Prime music services which includes Prime Music, Pandora and Spotify.
To use Lexi, simply launch the app and tap and hold the button to speak to Alexa.
While Lexi does not replace any of the native functionality that Siri offers, it serves as a good demo of what to expect if you are planning to buy an Amazon Echo. With Google Home coming soon and news of Apple’s rumored Siri assistant making rounds on the web, it is a good time to start testing Alexa.
Lexi is available in the App Store for $4.99 and you must have an Amazon account to use it.
