For the first time, Alexa users can now hear ALL their messages and email read aloud.
Amazon’s Alexa has become a household name. The world’s most popular virtual assistant is getting smarter every day, and now with Amazon Echo Auto, it’s in your car too.
“In today’s highly connected world, messaging in the form of emails, texts, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and work channels like Slack, are integral to our daily routine.” says Barrie Arnold, Co-Founder & CRO at ping.
“Distracted driving is responsible for more than 25% of car crashes and thousands of preventable fatalities every year.”
Wouldn’t it be amazing if you could ask Alexa to read your messages when checking your phone is dangerous and illegal – like driving, or simply inconvenient – like cooking or working with your hands. Now you can.
ping, a specialist in voice technology, has developed a powerful new Alexa skill as a companion to its patented smartphone app, that enables the reading aloud of any message type. Designed for safety, productivity and convenience, “pingloud” is the first skill of its kind for keeping users connected when they need a hand or an extra pair of eyes.
“The ping Alexa skill is specifically designed to help drivers stay off their phones while giving them exactly what they want – access to their messages.” says Garin Toren, ping’s Founder & CEO.
Opening up Alexa to developers has resulted in an explosion of new skills available either for free or for a fee that unlocks premium services or features. These powerful tools magnify the usefulness of your Alexa device beyond the common tasks like asking for the weather, playing a favorite music artist or requesting help on a homework assignment. According to App Annie the most downloaded apps in 2019 were Facebook Messenger, Facebook’s main app and WhatsApp, highlighting the importance of messaging.
Once you’ve signed up for ping, it takes a few seconds to link with Alexa, enabling all your messages and emails to be read aloud by your smart speaker or Echo Auto device. Simply say, “Hey Alexa, open pingloud.” ping links your account to your voice profile so unauthorized users with access to your Alexa cannot ask for your messages.“The ping Android app is available worldwide from the Google Pay Store, reading all messages out loud in 30 languages. The iOS version is in global beta testing with the US launch coming very soon,” according to Toren.
All major message types are supported including Texts/SMS, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, WeChat, Snapchat, Slack, Telegram, Twitter DM’s, Instagram and all email types. Promotional and social emails are not read by default.
About ping: “The future is voice.”
ping is patented, cross platform voice technology that allows users to hear all their messages and email read aloud, when touching their device is dangerous, illegal (driving) or inconvenient. Optional software-only telematics provides drivers, parents, fleets and auto insurers with extensive driving behavior analysis and reporting. The platform is also available as a white label app and SDK. www.pingloud.com
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