If you own an Alexa-powered device, there’s now even less of a chance that you’ll go hungry.
Amazon has given its Alexa voice assistant the ability to place food delivery orders from businesses affiliated with Amazon Restaurants. To expedite the service, Alexa will only be able to re-order from a restaurant or type of cuisine you’ve ordered from in the past. This is the latest perk being offered to Amazon Prime members who own an Alexa-powered device like an Amazon Tap, Amazon Echo, or Echo Dot.
Alexa is able to place restaurant delivery orders for Prime members in over 20 cities, as part of Prime Now, the Amazon service that offers same-day delivery. After enabling the Amazon Restaurants skill, Prime members can initiate a food delivery order by saying, “Alexa, order from Amazon Restaurants.”
The more food you order via Alexa, the easier the voice-commands get. For example, Prime members can re-order from a specific listing or a certain type of cuisine by saying, “Alexa, order tapas from Amazon Restaurants.” Alexa will pull up recent orders from that restaurant or cuisine and list off the different meals available for delivery. Prime members then pick the meals they want delivered to their default address.
Amazon promises Prime members that their food order will be delivered in an hour or less. Amazon Restaurants claims to not have menu markups and it does not charge an additional delivery fee beyond the $99-a-year cost for a Prime membership. Amazon Restaurants is available in Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Brooklyn, Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Portland, Manhattan, Miami, Minneapolis, Northern Virginia, Orlando, San Diego, San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, and Tampa.
The impact on you: Restaurant delivery is not new territory for Alexa. Amazon’s voice assistant was already able to order pizza from Domino’s and Pizza Hut via third-party “skill” integration. But those integrations have to be done one-by-one, which was more likely to be tackled by large food franchises. Incorporating an online food delivery service like Amazon Restaurants vastly expands Alexa’s food delivery options. It’s not just Big Pizza anymore—Amazon Restaurants has 120 listings in the San Francisco area.