Amazon is expanding the range of multi-modal devices that the Alexa Presentation Language supports to help developers and businesses reach customers with “voice-first visual skill experiences,” blogged developer Franklin Lobb. Amazon announced Wednesday the lower-priced Echo Show 5, a $90 smart device with a 5.5-inch display, speaker and built-in camera shutter. The Alexa-based Show 5 will automatically scale APL responses to fit the smaller screen, but Amazon strongly recommended updating responses to be optimized for the newer display. It’s taking preorders now, with shipping slated for late June.

LG began activating Amazon Alexa voice control in its 2019 TVs that feature artificial intelligence, said the company Wednesday. The update is being implemented through the Alexa app installed on LG UHD, NanoCell and OLED TVs with ThinQ AI over the next few weeks, said the company. LG is the only TV brand that comes equipped with the two leading voice control platforms, said Tim Alessi, head-home entertainment product marketing, LG. With the Alexa app, owners of compatible LG TVs can ask questions, control smart home products and access over 90,000 Alexa skills, without the need for a separate external device, the company said. The TV maker said its 2019 TVs can understand hundreds of voice commands and handle more complex requests due to more advanced LG ThinQ AI conversational voice recognition technology. Last year, LG included Google Assistant on AI ThinQ TVs. The command, "Alexa, start my morning" could initiate a series of actions such as providing traffic information, reporting the weather, listing calendar items and beginning a chosen playlist, it said.

Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., suggested Amazon misrepresented the control Echo smart speaker users have in deleting audio data from interactions with Alexa. According to a letter Coons sent CEO Jeff Bezos Thursday, the company told Coons and then-Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., in July that users can review and delete audio recordings from Alexa interactions, removing them from company servers. Coons cited recent reports claiming Amazon indefinitely retains transcripts of the audio interactions, meaning user control over audio is meaningless. “The inability to delete a transcript of an audio recording renders the option to delete the recording largely inconsequential and puts users’ privacy at risk,” Coons wrote. He asked Bezos if the claims are accurate, why users can’t delete such transcripts and what purpose the transcripts serve. The company is reviewing the letter, a spokesperson said Friday. Customers have "complete control over" the voice recordings, and can manage and delete recordings online: "When a customer deletes a voice recording, we also delete the corresponding text transcript associated with their account from our main Alexa systems and many subsystems, and have work underway to delete it from remaining subsystems.”

Google Assistant is now available on Bose Home Speaker 500 and its 500 and 700 sound bars, blogged Google Tuesday. Users can ask Google Assistant to play a favorite part of a song, pause a favorite show on a Chromecast-enabled TV or dim lights before a movie starts, it said. Customers who already own the speakers will receive an automatic software update introducing Google Assistant as a voice assistant option, said Anurag Jain, product manager, Google Assistant. Guided setup is available in the voice setting section of the Bose Music app.

Q1 sales of smart speakers in China soared by more than 500 percent year on year, reported Strategy Analytics Monday. That helped lift global Q1 sales to 25.9 million units, a 168 percent increase from the same 2018 period, it said. The global market shares of Chinese brands rose “much closer” to those of Amazon and Google, it said. “For the first time China has become the world’s largest market for smart speakers,” said SA. It “signals the arrival of smart speakers as one of the hottest consumer technologies in China, just as they have been in North America and parts of Europe for the past couple of years,” it said. “We expect China’s love affair with smart speakers and displays to continue for some time.”

Josh.ai continued its integration expansion with Dish Network, announcing Thursday its voice control platform works with the Hopper family of set-top boxes. Users with Josh and Dish can use natural language cues to navigate guide, menu, play, pause, fast-forward, rewind and “select television companies,” said the companies. Examples of voice commands for the Hopper interface are: “watch the Weather Channel,” “Channel 200,” “Next Channel,” “Guide,” “DVR” and “Watch ESPN, turn down the volume on the TV, open shades to 30 percent and turn on the lights.” Josh announced other integrations recently with LG, Savant and Yamaha.

Google began offering free, ad-supported YouTube Music to Google Home smart speaker owners, it blogged Thursday. Users say “Hey Google” before requesting music for a mood or an activity. To set it up, users with a Google Assistant-enabled speaker go to the app's settings, tap services and select music to set YouTube Music as the default music service, it said. For on-demand music for play outside of the house or to request specific songs or playlists, Google directs customers to its $9.99 per month YouTube Premium service.

Avaya announced self-service automation capabilities in a contact center business, from Nuance’s conversational artificial intelligence technology. AI interactions “significantly improve the accuracy, efficiency and effectiveness of self-service automation,” said Eric Rossman, Avaya vice president-partnerships, developers and alliances, Monday. Nuance’s Tony Lorentzen, senior vice president-intelligent engagement solutions, said the company’s AI-powered, enterprise-grade speech technologies enable automated, intelligent, contextual conversations “that feel almost human.” Popularity of virtual assistants and smart homes are leading consumers to “expect to control their experiences with technology simply by talking,” Lorentzen said. By 2023, customers will prefer to use speech interfaces to initiate 70 percent of self-service experiences, said Avaya, citing Gartner.

Thirty-one percent of U.S. broadband homes have a smart speaker and more than a quarter of them use the voice assistants to control a smart device, said Parks Associates Thursday. Voice control, and its promise to simplify the user experience, could help overcome consumer confusion that has inhibited smart home adoption, said analyst Brad Russell.

Yamaha added Josh.ai voice control to its MusicCast-enabled AV receivers, it said Thursday. The partnership continues the voice-control company’s courting of the custom integrator channel: it teamed with LG (see 1903190002) for its 2018 and 2019 TVs last week and with Savant control systems last month (see 1902130037). The Josh.ai platform auto-discovers AV devices on a network and natively understands multiple sources and destinations, said Yamaha. The platform gives users a “sophisticated voice-controlled home automation experience” along with apps. Josh.ai’s proprietary natural language processing lets users execute tasks using conversational language, said the companies. An example of a complex command has a user telling Josh to “dim the lights, listen to ‘Paint it Black’ by the Rolling Stones, and watch Black Mirror season two, episode three." Some 40 Yamaha receivers are compatible with Josh.ai platform.