Alexa wants to send notifications, interrupting your day

Amazon is going to send opt-in notifications through Alexa—pushing information rather than waiting for you to ask.

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Amazon's popular voice assistant Alexa works in many ways like an operator: one you call and ask to give you information. But Amazon says that customers would like another way to interact with the digital A.I.— getting notified through Alexa about details important to them such as weather changes, news, where you dinner order is, or even the location of someone they love. Soon, those options are going to be available to users who want to opt-in to getting pinged by Alexa.

Developers are going to be able to add this push-styled notification to their skills soon, says Amazon, in an announcement today. Those interested can sign-up now. But brands including The Washington Post, AccuWeather, JustEat and Life360, a popular tracking app, are going to be the first to use this kind of notification.

Customers presumably won't just have Alexa cut in on their day with audible statements. Instead, the voice system will sound a chime and have its ring of lights pulse on the Amazon Echo, Echo Dot or soon to launch Echo Show, alerting consumers of incoming information they've asked to know. You'll have to acknowledge the notification before it's turned off. But in case you don't want to be interrupted, Amazon says you can put Alexa into 'Do Not Disturb,' status.

Amazon is pushing ahead, announcing a variety of new ways to interact with Alexa in recent days, including a new service for developers to ensure Alexa is not woken incorrectly.