Alexa Trojan Gets Into iPhones and Other Smartphones

Apparently Alexa sneaks into smartphones via Amazon's shopping app - it "lives inside the main iOS Amazon app, one of the most popular downloads in the entire App Store." Two clicks and it's activated.

It's all about market penetration. Makes sense. What's the point of having a personal assistant that can’t leave the house?

Siri’s Not Even the Best iPhone Assistant Anymore

APPLE’S SIRI MAY not be the most capable voice assistant, or the most beloved. In the race to dominate the next generation of interfaces, though, Siri had one key advantage: a cushy home on hundreds of millions of iPhones. Now, however, Amazon has snuck Alexa onto iOS—making this look more and more like a blowout.

...Now, though, Alexa will live inside the main iOS Amazon app, one of the most popular downloads in the entire App Store.

That puts iPhone and iPad owners just two taps away—one to open the Amazon app, the next to activate the microphone—from a voice assistant that doesn’t just rival Siri, but surpasses it in significant ways. Alexa’s popularity should already be giving Apple fits. Now it’s coming from inside the phone.

...“Getting on smartphones has always been the biggest roadblock to Alexa becoming really useful as a personal assistant, because a personal assistant that can’t leave the house isn’t much good when you’re out and about,” says Jan Dawson, founder of Jackdaw Research.

ON ATS:

--Alexa, what are you hiding from us?--

originally posted by: soficrow
Makes sense. What's the point of having a personal assistant that can’t leave the house?

I think what you mean is
What's the sense of having a wire tap if it can't follow you around?

a reply to: spoonbender

I think what you mean is
What's the sense of having a wire tap if it can't follow you around?

Exactly.

Will some lawyer organize a massive class action lawsuit already?

originally posted by: Mandroid7
Will some lawyer organize a massive class action lawsuit already?

Why? Amazon isn't doing anything wrong...