Amazon Alexa can now play podcasts from Apple, making Amazon’s line of Echo gadgets the primary third-party shoppers to help the Apple Podcasts service with out utilizing AirPlay. Before, this stage of help was restricted to Apple’s HomePod. According to Amazon, the addition brings to Alexa gadgets Apple’s library of greater than 800,000 podcasts. It additionally permits clients to set Apple Podcasts as their most popular podcast service.
The transfer is the newest in a collection of partnerships between the 2 rivals, which additionally included the launch of the Apple TV app on Amazon’s Fire TV platform, in addition to the launch of Apple Music on Echo gadgets and Fire TV. Amazon, in response, has expanded its assortment of Apple stock to incorporate Apple TV, iPad, iPhone, Apple Watch and extra.
To get began, Apple customers who need to stream from Apple Podcasts will first must hyperlink their Apple ID within the Alexa app. Customers can then ask Alexa to play or resume the podcasts they need to hear. Other participant instructions, like “next” or “fast forward,” work, too. And as you progress between gadgets, your progress inside every episode may even sync, which implies you can begin listening on Alexa, then decide up the place you left off in your iPhone.
In the Alexa app’s Settings, customers may even have the ability to specify Apple Podcasts as their default participant, which implies any time they ask Alexa for a podcast with out indicating a supply, it’s going to stream from the Apple Podcasts service.
Not to be outdone, Spotify additionally right now introduced its help for streaming podcasts on Alexa within the U.S.
Of course, Spotify Premium customers have been in a position to make use of Spotify Connect to stream to Echo earlier than right now.
But now, Spotify says that each Free and Premium U.S. clients will have the ability to ask Alexa for podcasts in addition to set Spotify as their default participant.
Alexa’s help for Spotify podcasts was truly introduced in September (alongside different information) at Amazon’s annual Alexa occasion in Seattle, so it’s much less of a shock than the Apple addition.
At the time, Amazon stated it was including help for Spotify’s podcast library within the U.S., which might deliver “hundreds of thousands” of podcasts to Alexa gadgets. That additionally consists of Spotify’s quite a few unique podcasts — one thing that can give Echo customers a cause to set Spotify as their default, maybe.
Shortly after that announcement, Spotify stated its free service would additionally now stream to Alexa gadgets, as a substitute of solely its paid service for Premium subscribers.
