TECH

New Alexa setting makes follow-up questions much easier to ask
Alexa is easily the current leader of the growing virtual assistant market, and Amazon is keen to stay ahead of competition from Google and Apple. The company's new feature for Alexa is dubbed "follow-up mode," and it makes it easier for users to ask multiple questions in succession by dropping the need to repeat the wake-up command.With follow-up mode, users can give Alexa commands or requests back to back, without having to say "Alexa" for each one. For example, you can ask the assistant to turn on the lights, and once that task is complete you can then tell it to adjust the temperature. This does not mean you combine commands into a single request, but it's at least the same as you.The way it works is that Alexa continues to listen for commands for up to five seconds after completing the first. Any requests made within that time period do not need to repeat "Alexa." The additional listening period is denoted on Amazon's Echo speakers by the glowing blue ring; once it's no longer lit up, Alexa is back in sleep mode and requires the wake-up command.
Amazon notes that follow-up requests will only be acted on when Alexa is "confident" she did not come from noise background, such as TV show or conversation. It will take some time to see how accurately this works, and it's likely to be improved down the line. One current feature to address this issue is that users can say "thank you" or "stop" at the end of their sentences to cut short the additional listening period and put Alexa back to sleep.
Follow-up mode is currently available for all Echo devices and several third-party products, however it is opt-in setting by default and limited to English.

Adam Westlake