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Alexa now runs on the Apple Watch, thanks to Voice in a Can app

Alexa now runs on the Apple Watch, thanks to Voice in a Can app

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Alexa on an Apple Watch
Alexa on an Apple Watch
Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge

If you’re tired of having to rely on Siri on your Apple Watch, there’s now a way to bring Amazon’s Alexa assistant to your wrist. Voice in a Can is a third-party app that lets you interact with Alexa on an Apple Watch. It’s a standalone Apple Watch app, which means you don’t need to tether to an iPhone to use Alexa, and all you need is a Wi-Fi signal or LTE (on a modern compatible Apple Watch).

Apple has restricted the Apple Watch to easily access Siri and no other digital assistants, but Voice in a Can uses a watch complication to make it easy to launch the app from the watchface. As this is a third-party Alexa app, it also means you won’t be able to use it to make calls, play music, or do Echo announcements. However, it will fully support the smart home features of Alexa. The smart home support means you’ll be able to trigger your lights or other devices like an Alexa-enabled coffee machine while you’re out of the house.

Voice in a Can works by syncing to your main Amazon Alexa account, and then you tap on an icon in the app to get Alexa to respond. Apple Watch apps aren’t particularly speedy, and this is no exception, but it’s a good idea to increase the timeout setting for apps on the Apple Watch as when the display goes blank the app disconnects from the Alexa service. Until Amazon officially supports the Apple Watch (it took a while for Alexa on iPhone), this is the best alternative out there, but it’s priced at $1.99 so you’ll have to really want Alexa on your wrist to give this a go.