When Amazon rolled out the next generation of its set-top box, the Fire TV, last year, one of the standout features was the addition of Amazon Alexa to the platform. Today, the voice assistant is making its way to owners of Amazon’s original Fire TV and Fire TV Sticks, the company announced this morning, thanks to an over-the-air update arriving shortly.
The free download will begin to roll out now, and will continue over the next few weeks, says Amazon.
With Amazon Alexa, Fire TV users can do things like control the lights in their smart home, ask about news, weather and traffic, play games, listen to Audible books or music, perform local searches (e.g. for restaurants, bars, etc.), and, of course, order things from Amazon.
While the most notable feature the new update brings is Alexa, the update will also include other improvements and fixes. For example, Amazon Video’s add-on subscription service will now be easier to use, by allowing users a better way to find new subscriptions, and sign up.
Video Subscriptions, as a reminder, is the feature that lets Amazon Video users pay for extra channels from third-parties, including Showtime, Starz, Comedy Central Stand-up, Acorn TV, Lifetime Movie Club, Gaia, and Qello Concerts.
In addition, Amazon says it will now offer Bluetooth headphone support for Fire TV Stick devices, which was previously available only on Fire TV devices.
Users don’t have to do anything to trigger the update on their end – it will be downloaded and installed automatically when the device is connected wirelessly. However, if you want to manually check for an update, you can go to the Settings screen, then “System,” “About” and choose “Check for System Update.”
