With Flash Briefing, Alexa delivers news and content from popular broadcasters, local weather information and other news to the hands-free speaker users control with their voice. Alexa is the cloud-based voice technology behind Amazon Echo and Echo Dot.
Flash Briefings became available to publishers and developers in the UK earlier this year and Informed Choice says it is one of the first 200 publishers to use this innovative technology, joining Flash Briefings available from BBC News, Sky News and Met Office.
Informed Choice has developed a Flash Briefing which provides a short (3-5 minute) daily audio briefing with the latest personal finance and investing headlines.
The company believes the Alexa addition will help build on the popular Informed Choice Radio podcast, which recently celebrated the milestone of 250 episodes and 100,000 downloads. The Flash Briefings offer Alexa users a new way to consume content from the award-winning firm of Chartered Financial Planners.
Flash Briefings are pre-recorded audio clips that draw from RSS feed content, in this case podcast episode updates from Informed Choice Radio, created specifically for the Flash Briefing functionality on Amazon Alexa.
Informed Choice managing director and Informed Choice Radio host Martin Bamford said: “With a growing demand for personal finance and investment information in an audio format, creating a Flash Briefing for Amazon Alexa allows us to deliver updates in a smart way, on-demand, inside homes and offices across the country.
“We lead increasingly busy lives, so using modern technology like Amazon Alexa means our clients and professional contacts can stay educated, informed and up-to-date on the latest money matters.”
Users of Alexa can add the Informed Choice Radio Flash Briefing to their Alexa enabled device by searching for Informed Choice Radio in their Amazon Alexa app and enabling the skill. The skill is free to enable.
To play the latest Flash Briefing from Informed Choice Radio users simply say to their Echo or Echo Dot, “Alexa, what’s my Flash Briefing?” or “Alexa, what’s in the news?”
The Informed Choice Radio podcast has also been made available to play through Amazon Alexa, following acceptance as a channel on TuneIn Radio. To play the podcast on your Echo or Echo Dot, say “Alexa, play me the Informed Choice Radio podcast.”