Developers from Rain, a U.S. digital consultancy, have made Reverb, an app that essentially turns an iPhone, iPad, or a Mac into a third-party Amazon Alexa access point.
Alexa On Your Mac, iPhone, Or iPad
The free Mac app, when launched, lets the user sign in with their Amazon account, whereupon a window shows up, imitating Amazon Echo's familiar ring that outputs a blue glow. If users click and hold the ring, provided an internet connection is available, Reverb will listen and respond in the same way Amazon's line of smart speakers, such as the Echo, does.
The iOS version of Reverb works pretty much the same way, with the latest version of the app using Alexa v2, as pointed out by MacRumors. This adds support for news flashes, alarms, alerts, audiobooks, and more. The app can also interact with a range of Alexa-enabled devices, such as controllable lights, switches, and others. Naturally, the only unsupported integrated is music playback, as Amazon has placed tight restrictions on using Amazon Music in apps.
Enable Alexa Skills Directly From The App
On top of all this, users can use Reverb and try out third-party skills, triggered with a simple voice command: "Enable Starbucks Reorder," for instance. In MacRumors' testing, the Mac version of Reverb also responded to new Alexa skills that were added using the Alexa app for iOS, which supports and integrates with the Reverb app for iOS.
Of course, some may find the app redundant, as the purpose of Amazon Echo is far-field Always-on listening functionality, which enable owners of the device to ask questions and make orders even when they're fairly far from Echo in terms of location. But for those only able to afford a single Echo device for their household, Reverb might come in certain situations, especially if the device is placed too far to bark orders to.
"We use it to test our skills," Greg Hedges, Rain's director of strategy, told AdWeek this past November. "We are always looking to be on top of moving technologies and make sure that we understand them — building this was part of understanding the platform."
Possible Google Home App Soon?
The interview also stated that Rain is keeping an eye out for Google Home, Alphabet's own smart speaker.
"We feel like the process that we've honed is applicable to those — while we've built skills, what we've really been building in the end are these larger experiences and then executing them using Alexa," Hedges said.
Echo is a smart speaker by Amazon that comes packing with Alexa, the company's proprietary voice-enabled virtual assistant. Alexa has these things called "Skills," as previously mentioned, which enable it to interact with different devices and perform a slew of commands. Tech Times has a handy guide for the best Alexa Skills out there, and it might be worth a look at if you're just beginning to learn how to use your Echo.
Reverb is available now for free on the Mac App Store and for iPhone and iPad on the iOS App Store. There's even an Android version available on the Play Store.
Have you already tried Reverb? How's the experience so far? Feel free to sound off in the comments section below!
