After already targeting verticals like hotels and apartment complexes, Amazon announced today it's now rolling out new solutions for healthcare providers and senior living centers. The solutions, which are a part of Alexa Smart Properties, are designed specifically to meet the needs of deploying Alexa devices at scale and will allow the facility's administrators to create customized experiences for their residents or patients. In senior living centers, the residents would be able to use Alexa devices to call their family members and other loved ones, as well as keep up with the goings-on at their community and other community news. The devices could also be used to make announcements, allow the residents to communicate with each other through direct audio messages, make voice and video calls, and they can streamline other center activities -- like check-ins, maintenance requests, and various administrative tasks. Amazon believes this could help make facilities more efficient and productive.

Last week, Amazon updated Fire TV Cube with the Alexa Announcements feature (which lets you dictate a message that the other Echo devices in your home will broadcast) and notifications from your smart doorbell and camera. With Follow-Up Mode, you can ask Alexa for additional information or to carry out further actions after your initial request. So, when you say something like "Alexa, show me comedy movies" and it displays a selection of such films on your TV, you can ask it to play a certain flick without having to say "Alexa" again. You might also use Follow-Up Mode to ask for extra info about the weather or items on a list. You'll need to switch on the feature from the settings in the Alexa app if you'd like to use it.

Amazon is integrating Alexa with services that help around the house, from turning on the microwave to charging your plugged-in EV. For its next trick, the tech giant wants to push its voice assistant into devices you take on the go. Today, Amazon introduced the'Alexa Mobile Accessory Kit,' software that lets developers hook up their Bluetooth-equipped wearables and headphones to the voice-controlled service. The kit enables OEM devices to connect over Bluetooth to the Alexa Voice Service (AVS) through the Alexa app on iOS or Android devices. There are already devices that hook up to Amazon's voice assistant, of course, but routing through the app is a lighter-weight option than building in functionality via the AVS Device SDK released last August.

The whole point of Amazon's Alexa is to talk, rather than type, to a virtual assistant. When you've grown tired of ordering Domino's pizzas and asking what the weather is like, however, the company hopes you'll want to talk to another human being. Following the US, it's now possible to call and message Alexa users from the UK, Germany and Austria. It works on the company's fast-growing range of Echo and Echo Dot speakers, as well as the Alexa app for iOS and Android. The screen-equipped Echo Show will also support basic video calling when it arrives in Britain next month.

Amazon is bringing Alexa to the iPhone today right inside of the company's main app. While this isn't the first time Alexa has been on a smartphone -- third parties have made it happen already -- this is the first time it's coming directly from Amazon. And it could be a huge help to anyone who's filling their home with Alexa-enabled devices. Inside of the Amazon App for iOS, there will be a microphone icon near the top of the screen that you can press to call up Alexa. You'll be able to ask the assistant almost anything you'd normally be able to ask through a device like the Echo.