Amazon has announced that Alexa, the brain behind the Echo device family, will be available in the United Arab Emirates, with customers getting a brand-new, localised language experience in Khaleeji Arabic as well as English, new smart home integrations with a variety of compatible devices, and nearly 200 Alexa skills.
“We’re incredibly excited to bring Alexa and the Echo family of devices to the United Arab Emirates,” said Tom Taylor, Senior Vice President, Amazon Alexa.
He added, “The team has worked hard to create an all-new Khaleeji Arabic experience designed from the ground up for Arabic-speaking customers and to optimize the Alexa experience in English for English-speakers to enjoy.”
“On our way to becoming a world leader in Artificial Intelligence, we welcome Alexa to the United Arab Emirates”, said His Excellency Omar Bin Sultan Al Olama, Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy and Remote Work Applications.
He also said, “Much like AI is at the core of Alexa’s personality, we are working on doing the same for the entire nation – building an AI-driven economy that contributes significantly to education, government development, and the happiness of our community.”
Manal Al Bayat, Chief Engagement Officer at Dubai Expo 2020, said: “Not only is Alexa coming to the region with Arabic capabilities but Expo 2020 Dubai content is very much part of its introduction. It has been an amazing experience to work with Amazon on this and create new and inspiring ways of delivering Expo’s message to the world. This kind of innovation and cutting-edge technology is in the spirit of Expo 2020 and its themes, and we hope Alexa users have fun discovering even more about this once-in-a-lifetime event.”
“As the region’s leading digital music platform, we’re thrilled to team up with Alexa, providing customers with access to millions of international and Arabic songs and podcasts”, said Elie Habib, Co-founder and CTO of Anghami.
He added, “Only by using their voice, customers can ask Alexa to play any song from the region’s largest music catalog in Arabic – this adds a new dimension to our customer experience.”
Echo devices are voice-controlled speakers that are always ready, hands-free, and quick to respond to your commands. Alexa is continually getting smarter because it runs in the cloud and receives new feature updates on a regular basis. Simply ask Alexa a question, and she will respond by playing music, reading the news, reciting the Quran, setting timers and alarms, providing sports scores, controlling lighting at home, and much more. With Echo’s far-field voice control, you can perform all of this with just your voice from across the room.
In the United Arab Emirates, Alexa features a Khaleeji Arabic voice with a personality that will surprise and delight customers—local pronunciations and intonation; local knowledge; and nearly 200 Alexa skills from regional developers and brands, including Etisalat, Expo 2020, Domino’s, Fatafeat, Careem, Emirates NBD, DEWA, and more. Customers can use Alexa in English to set timers, add reminders, create To-Do-Lists, share announcements, and more.
Echo blends superior sound with a built-in Zigbee smart home hub in a hands-free, voice-controlled gadget with a built-in speaker. Echo delivers clean highs, powerful mids, and deep bass for rich and can instantly adapt to your area by sensing the acoustics of your location, thanks to its 3.0-inch woofer, dual-firing tweeters, and Dolby processing.
The Echo Dot is our most popular speaker worldwide, and it has a tiny, spherical shape with a powerful 1.6-inch front-firing speaker that produces sharp vocals and balanced bass for full sound. The Echo Dot with Clock has all of the same functions as the Echo Dot, plus a simple LED display for checking the time, setting timers, and setting alarms. These devices, which have a tap-to-snooze feature, are the ideal addition to any bedside table. The Echo Dot comes in Charcoal, White, and Blue, while the Echo Dot with Clock comes in White and Blue. The most affordable Echo device in our lineup, the Echo Dot (Gen3), is simple to set up and use—plug it in, launch the Alexa app, and you’re ready to go in minutes. Alexa hears you from across the room thanks to four far-field microphones. You can even fill your entire home with sound by placing compatible Echo devices in different rooms.
The Echo Show 5 features a smart display and a 2-megapixel HD camera. Customize your morning ritual to include lighting and a tune that plays as you get up. Set timers, check your to-do list, and listen to or watch music or videos—all with just your voice.
The Echo Show 8 has a 13-megapixel wide-angle camera and an 8-inch high-definition touchscreen with adaptive colour. Whether you’re listening to music or podcasts from Anghami or Spotify, or audio books from Storytel, or viewing TV shows and movies from Netflix or Prime Video, the gadget has dual speakers built in.
The bright 10″ HD screen on the Echo Show 10 will automatically turn toward you, allowing you to keep your eyes on the screen and focused on what you’re watching. View the weather, news, music and video, recipes, games, and compatible cameras, among other things.
The Alexa service is always getting smarter, thanks to its cloud architecture and tens of thousands of third-party developers generating skills all over the world. Alexa allows you to do the following with just your voice:
Hear the News
Alexa can read the news and provide personalised updates depending on your choices. You can choose from a variety of news and sports outlets, like Al Arabiya, CNBC Arabia, Sport360, SkyNews, ARNradio, and others, to get your news and sports results. “Alexa, what’s the news?” is all you have to say. Al Arabiya FM, Al Khaleejia FM, Dubai eye 103.8, Virgin Radio Dubai, Hits 96.7, Radio Shoma, Aloula Radio, and Dubai Holy Quran will be available at launch.
Alexa can recite the Quran verbatim from the surah or juz’u of your choice. “Alexa, play surah Al Kahaf,” you can simply say. Customers will soon be able to establish prayer times by telling Alexa, “Alexa, wake me up when it’s time for Fajr,” as well as check the Hijri calendar by asking Alexa to remind them to get the aydiya before the last 10 days of Ramdan.
Alexa integrates premium music services such as Anghami, Spotify, and others to provide a seamless music experience. In addition, tune in to your favourite radio stations, such as MBC, Panorama, and others. “Alexa, play pop music” or “Alexa, skip this song” can be used to control music and play millions of songs. You may even coordinate numerous Echo devices so that they all play the same music in every room. “Alexa, wake me up to Top Hits,” you can say each morning to hear your favourite tunes.
Before getting out of bed, use any Echo device to turn on the lamp, or dim the lights from the couch while watching a movie. Enjoy hands-free home security with Ring, whose cameras, video doorbells, and alarm systems are all Alexa-compatible, assisting in the protection and peace of mind of your house. To watch your camera stream on your Echo Show device, simply say, “Alexa, show me the nursery.” Alexa is also compatible with other smart home devices, such as smart lights and plugs from Philips Hue, Xiaomi, TP-Link, and others.
Inquire about famous individuals, dates, locations, calculations, conversions, spelling, and much more using Alexa. “Alexa, what time is maghrib in Abu Dhabi?” “Alexa, when is Eid Al Adha?” “Alexa, when was the Burj Khalifa built?” “Alexa, tell me a joke,” and so on.
Find out when your favourite team’s next game is, and more, by asking Alexa for live scores or scores from previous games. “Alexa, what is the al-Ahly score?” and “Alexa, when is al-next Ain’s match?” are simple questions to ask.
Multiple levels of privacy protection are built into all Echo devices, including hardware microphone and camera controls. You may remove your Alexa voice recordings in a variety of methods, including using your voice or the Alexa app. Simply say to Alexa, “Alexa, delete what I just said.” Alternatively, you may use the Alexa app to delete all of your voice recordings at once, have them automatically destroyed after three or 18 months on a regular basis, or choose not to save them at all. Accessibility capabilities on Echo Show devices include the option to communicate with Alexa using touch rather than speech, the ability to read captions for Alexa’s responses on the device screen, and more.
Customers will be able to choose from almost 200 abilities available in the United Arab Emirates when the service launches. Learn everything there is to know about Expo 2020 with the official Expo skill, book a ride with the Careem skill, get recipes and cooking instructions with the Fatafeat skill, order pizza with the Domino’s skill, find out what movies are playing with the Reel Cinema skill, meditate with the Tawazon skill, listen to an audiobook with the Storytel skill, and more.
