amazonecho

Amazon introduced the Echo one year ago this month, and since then the smart Bluetooth speaker has become one of Amazon’s most-loved products, literally. More than 500,000 people have said “I love you” to Alexa, the digital assistant that powers the Echo, according to the company. But that’s not the only thing that’s made the speaker a hit.

EchotopAmazon release a handful of stats it has gathered from the first year of the Echo. Not only is Alexa the comedic relief users want after a stressful day (she’s told almost 10 million jokes), but she’s works as a dietitian and cookbook.

Alexa has provided calorie information on thousands of foods, but the top three requests are for donuts, hamburgers and pizza. The most popular cooking question is “How do I boil an egg?” which seems pretty self-explanatory, but AI doesn’t judge.

As a Bluetooth speaker, one of the Echo’s main selling points is the ability to play music. With access to Amazon’s streaming library, the box gets a lot of specific song requests, with “Uptown Funk” taking the top spot for most requested song.

Alexa’s skill have also grown in the year since she was first introduced to customers. Back in March, she added support for traffic updates. In April, she became the voice of your smart home. She added Yelp to her repertoire last month, and just this week gained the ability to interface with many internet services thanks to IFTTT support.

Alexa also quickly outgrew her Amazon home. She’s now available to developers through the Amazon Skills Kit, and 11 companies have gotten funding from Amazon to build out devices that use Alexa’s voice recognition and smarts.

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