Amazon Alexa can now listen out for beeping appliances

Alexa, Amazon's digital assistant, can now listen out for running water and beeping home appliances, the firm has revealed. The tech giant has added both'sound detectors' to Alexa Routines – sequences of tasks linked to Alexa that users can program as a shortcut. It means Alexa can recognise the individual sounds and send a notification to the user via their device so they can attend to them. If users want Alexa to detect the ping of a tumble dryer when it finishes a spin, for example, they can set up a routine for Alexa to send an alert. Alexa, Amazon's digital assistant, can now listen out for running water and beeping appliances, the firm has revealed.