Amazon has announced that it will partner with Uber to allow customers to track their Uber Eats orders through Amazon’s voice assistant, Alexa.
The new feature will allow Echo device owners to turn on an order-tracking feature that will give them updates on their food delivery status through Alexa, starting later this month. This partnership could potentially boost Amazon’s third-party voice app adoption as more users experiment with Alexa’s capabilities.
To use the new feature, Uber Eats users can turn on the “Track with Alexa” option in the app’s voice assistant settings. They can then tap the Alexa button to start tracking their order’s progress. Customers will have two options for receiving updates. They can either choose the more traditional notification method, which changes the Echo’s blue ring light to yellow, and ask “Alexa, what’s my notification?” to receive updates. Alternatively, customers can choose to have Alexa announce updates to either one or all of the household’s Echo devices, such as when the food is ready, picked up for delivery, or when the driver has arrived at their house. Alexa will also alert customers if an order has been canceled.
Uber worked closely with Amazon to ensure that the feature would not have any downsides, such as accidentally waking up a sleeping baby or notifying someone who is traveling. Instead, customers will need to enable the feature on each order they place to avoid any unexpected notifications.
This new feature joins Uber’s other integrations with Google Assistant and Siri and is expected to launch for Uber Eats’ U.S. customers later this month. The integration could drive adoption of Alexa’s third-party voice apps and increase customer satisfaction by providing a convenient and hands-free way to track food deliveries.
