Alexa Can Now Manage (Some of) Your Audible and Kindle Content
Amazon recently updated the Manage Your Content and Devices page on Amazon.com with a new notice that reads "Using Alexa, you can now send ebooks, audiobooks, personal documents, etc., to your Kindle or remove them permanently from your library. To give it a try you just have to say, 'Alexa, manage my content'."
This announcement was intriguing enough that I went digging for my Echo Dot and plugged it in.
For several years now Alexa has been able to play Audible audiobooks and read some Kindle content aloud. Now you can use Amazon’s gift to the surveillance state to perform some basic Kindle and Audible library management functions.
My Echo Dot told me that it can send an item from my Kindle or Audible library to one of my Kindles, Kindle Fires, or a Kindle app. It can also permanently delete content from my library.
There’s no option for buying Kindle ebooks, however, or borrowing them from Kindle Unlimited or Prime Reading, but you can return a borrowed ebook by having Alexa delete it from your account.
There’s also no way to have Alexa list the titles in your Kindle or Audible library, so you basically have to have it memorized or the new features aren’t going to do you any good.
All in all the new features aren’t going to be very useful until Amazon offers a more complete set of commands, but as a first step it is not bad.
No Comments