Jordan O'BrienThe Alexa voice assistant has been available in the UK since September 28, but only through the Amazon Echo and Echo Dot smart speakers. That meant UK consumers couldn’t interact with Alexa through the Amazon Fire TV – even though their US counterparts could. That’s all set to change come April 6, however.
Amazon has officially confirmed that the new Fire TV Stick that launched in the US back in October, will be hitting the UK on April 6. While it doesn’t support 4K, it does boast a quad-core processor that should make it 30% faster than the previous generation Fire TV Stick. It also comes with a voice remote, which as one would expect – can communicate with Alexa.
Using Alexa on the Amazon Fire TV Stick can be infinitely more useful than on the Amazon Echo. That’s because users can simply carry around the remote in their pocket and press it at any given moment. What’s more, Alexa on Amazon Fire TV supports all of the same functionality as that on the Amazon Echo – including queuing up music playlists, controlling smart home devices and even ordering an Uber.
With the arrival of Alexa on the new Amazon Fire TV Stick, it’s believed that previous generation Amazon Fire TVs should also receive the update. It’s likely that the update will begin rolling out at around the same time as the new Fire TV Stick, however.
In addition to a UK launch, Amazon has also given the second-generation Fire TV Stick a German release date. In Germany, Amazon expects to begin shipping the Fire TV Stick on April 20th, and like the UK model, it’ll come with Alexa in tow.