Roomba
The Roomba robotic vacuum will go to work when Amazon’s Alexa tells it to. (iRobot Photo)

If you want to clean up before ordering in some food, or you need to clean up after eating that food, new Amazon Alexa skills for Roomba and Grubhub could help in the process.

iRobot, makers of the Roomba vacuuming robots, announced Wednesday that users of those devices won’t need to move much more than their lips to get their floors cleaned. The voice-activated Alexa will be integrated with iRobot’s Home app and users can start, stop and pause Roomba in its tracks by just speaking to an Amazon Echo or Dot, for instance.

Alexa will be available for connected vacuums such as the Roomba 900 Series, which sell for between $700 and $900, and the update will show up in the Q2 of this year.

“iRobot is aggressively pursuing opportunities within the connected home to improve our customers’ experience with our cleaning robots,” Colin Angle, chairman and CEO of iRobot, said in a news release. “The latest updates for the iRobot HOME App make cleaning with an iRobot Roomba vacuuming robot even more user friendly, with voice-activated commands, enhanced mapping features and useful post-cleaning reports. These are exciting next steps towards our vision of an ecosystem of home robots that work collaboratively and further enable the smart home.”

Grubhub
The Grubhub mobile app. (Grubhub Photo)

While the Roomba cruises the floors, you should be looking at the menu on Grubhub and ordering some food, because that online takeout service has also added an Alexa skill to ease the communication process.

By saying, “Alexa, tell Grubhub I’m hungry,” diners can get Alexa to access their order history and make it easier to get food they liked previously from one of their favorite local restaurants.

Alexa will recite a user’s past three orders and will then place whatever order is chosen and provide an estimated time when it will be ready.

“Ordering meals with only your voice is one of the more popular capabilities on Alexa. Customers love how convenient it is to simply ask Alexa to place an order for delivery,” said Rob Pulciani, Amazon Alexa director, said in a news release. “I’m excited that customers can now reorder from Grubhub’s network of 50,000-plus restaurants, giving them even more choices as to where their next breakfast, lunch, dinner, or snack will come from.”

With a full belly, who’s going to want to pick up if somebody gets crumbs all over the carpet?

“Alexa, tell Roomba to start cleaning.”

Like what you're reading? Subscribe to GeekWire's free newsletters to catch every headline

Job Listings on GeekWork

Find more jobs on GeekWork. Employers, post a job here.