Amazon's Alexa Upgrades Give the Voice Assistant New Listening Powers

Amazon Alexa will soon notice if you talk to it sotto voce--and whisper its response back to you. The new feature, announced by Amazon today alongside new devices including a microwave and a wall clock at an event in Seattle, is one of several upgrades that will expand the virtual assistant's ability to listen to and understand the world around it. Alexa will able to confer with you in whispers before the end of the year, making Amazon's voice operated assistant less awkward to use when someone is, say, sleeping nearby. Amazon will also make its assistant capable of listening out for trouble such as breaking glass or a smoke alarm when you're away from home, a feature called Alexa Guard. Meanwhile, inside Amazon's labs, the company is experimenting with giving Alexa a rudimentary form of emotional awareness, enabling it to listen for the sound of frustration in a person's voice.