Huawei Begins Updating the Mate 9 with Amazon Alexa Support

In January, Huawei announced that they would be bringing Alexa support to their latest flagship, the Huawei Mate 9. Today, they are pushing out the software update that brings Alexa to the Mate 9, via an OTA update. The update will begin rolling out today, and continue over the next few days as a staged rollout, and it will add another new app that will be pre-installed on your smartphone. The president of Huawei Device USA, Zhendong Zhu stated that “with the new Huawei Alexa app, we add intelligent voice control to the rich features already available on Mate 9.” Zhu added that they are looking forward to further collaboration with Amazon to further develop for Alexa.

Alexa on the Mate 9 works similar to it would on the Echo, Echo Dot or the Amazon Tap. Where you can talk with Alexa through your smartphone to ask questions, as well as control your smart home like your lights, thermostat and more. Of course, Alexa does also have support for other skills, including ordering pizza through Pizza Hut or Domino’s, as well as ordering you an Uber and much more. It means that you can now have Alexa with you wherever you go. Instead of only having it at home. This is a pretty big deal for Alexa users, as well as Amazon, as users will be able to use Alexa a whole lot more, which is definitely what Amazon wants to see.

There are currently over 10,000 skills available for Alexa, and plenty more being added all the time. Some of the most interesting ones include the myFord Mobile skill, which allows you to start or unlock your car from virtually anywhere using your voice. Of course, you can also have Alexa read off your calendar for the day, as well as giving you the weather and much more.

Those that haven’t picked up the Huawei Mate 9 can still do so through Amazon, B&H Photo and Jet.com. The Huawei Mate 9 is typically priced at $599, but you can sometimes find it a bit cheaper. Of course, with Amazon, you can get free two-day shipping if you’re an Amazon Prime user.