alexa

Alexa’s new ‘Answer Update’ feature is Amazon’s way of surfacing knowledge updates

Chance Miller | Aug 6 2018 - 1:31 pm PT

As it continues to rapidly advance its voice assistant’s capabilities, Amazon today confirmed the rollout of a new feature for Alexa called “Answer Update.” This feature, according to TechCrunch, will notify users when Alexa learns the answer to a question it didn’t previously know…

In most cases when Alexa is unable to answer a question when asked, it responds with a handful of statements, including “I don’t know that, but I’m always learning.”

With its new “Answer Update” feature, however, Alexa will now notify users when it is able to answer a question that it previously did not know. This notification comes in the form of an on-device prompt. The feature was first spotted by Voicebot.

The feature is opt-in, which means users must agree to be notified for answer updates. Once enabled, Alexa will say, “Okay, if you ask me a question and I don’t know the answer, but I find out later, I’ll notify you.”

Essentially, what this feature means, is that – if enabled – Alexa has the ability to inform you later on if it learns the answer to a question you asked in the past, but that it was originally unable to answer.

In a statement, an Amazon spokesperson explained the “Answer Update” is an effort to showcase Alexa’s continued advancement though its “Alexa Knowledge Graph.”

“The Alexa service is getting smarter every day, and Answer Updates is just another way we’re continuing to expand Alexa’s Knowledge Graph,” an Amazon spokesperson said.

“Answer Update” is rolling out to Alexa users now. Users will be prompted to turn on the feature, though it can manually be enabled by saying “Alexa, turn on Answer Update.”