Alexa is making it easier than ever to navigate, stay connected, and be entertained on-the-go, while helping you focus on the road ahead. Make the most of your drive with Auto Mode, a new feature that makes Alexa in the vehicle even better. As per Amazon, “This Auto Mode is rolling out to Android and iOS in the coming weeks, and will be available in the U.S., Canada, Germany, France, India, Italy, Spain, UK, Australia and New Zealand.”
Auto Mode in the Alexa app lets you see and do more with your Echo Auto and supported Alexa auto accessories by turning your phone into a smart, driver-friendly display that enhances Alexa’s in-vehicle voice experience.
According to an official blog post, “Auto Mode was designed to help you stay focused on the road with easy to read visuals, large touch targets and intuitive features and shortcuts for the most common Alexa interactions used in the vehicle like navigating to saved locations, placing calls to contacts and Alexa devices, and playing recent media.”
Mind you! Auto Mode consists of four screens — Home, Navigation, Communication, and Play — and a persistent menu bar allows users to quickly switch between them. The Auto Mode home screen is designed to enable one-touch access to the Alexa users’ frequent actions, with shortcuts to play and pause your current music source, navigate to home or work, and to make a call. The users can simply tap on the shortcut to initiate the action or ask Alexa, for example “Alexa, continue playing my music.”
On the other hand, the Navigate screen allows one click access to the user’s favorite locations stored in the Alexa app. Choosing a destination will open their preferred navigation app and begin guidance. The users can switch back to the Alexa app using only your voice by simply asking, “Alexa, go back to the Alexa app.” They can also ask Alexa to help you find someplace new, for example, “Alexa, find nearby coffee shops.” As Alexa reads back the responses, Auto Mode displays a simplified list showing only the most relevant information, allowing them to either use the voice to make a selection or simply touch on it to begin navigation.
Moreover, the Communicate screen helps one to place a call with much ease. A user can drop in or make an announcement to his/ her Alexa devices. They can ask Alexa to initiate the action or touch their selection, and Auto Mode will provide an easy to read list of recently placed calls and devices. If one wants to drop in on their family to let them know they are headed home, they can say “Alexa, Drop In on my Kitchen Echo Show,” or simply tap on the screen and Alexa will do the rest.
Besides these features, the Play screen showcases the most recent media played using any Alexa device and a convenient button to play or pause, along with a list of most recently played media. Selecting any of the items in the list starts playing the media and brings up the Now Playing screen, which provides additional controls specific to the type of media being played and the service used. A user can stay entertained while on-the-go just by asking Alexa or using Auto Mode’s shortcuts and easy touch controls.
For the latest gadget and tech news, and gadget reviews, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. For newest tech & gadget videos subscribe to our YouTube Channel. You can also stay up to date using the Gadget Bridge Android App.
