Amazon Expands Fire TV Voice Search

The online retailer is integrating a slew of new apps into its voice search feature. 

After making its debut earlier this month, the Amazon Fire TV is now set to receive a very welcome upgrade to its popular voice search function. As noted by Mike Flacy in our full review, the streaming media player features a handy voice search option with impressive accuracy, but the launch software only offers full support for Amazon Instant Video search results. Thankfully, the company is now preparing to remedy this limitation.

Soon Hulu Plus, Crackle, SHOWTIME ANYTIME, and VEVO will all be fully integrated into the Fire TV's voice search, allowing customers to search through their full catalogs by speaking their selections. The expanded voice search support is expected to launch this summer. In addition, Amazon also teased new Fire TV videogames and apps in development from companies like Telltale Games, Halfbrick, Pixowl, Disney Interactive, Minority Media, Paradox Interactive, Gaiam, AllRecipes, and Twitch. Likewise, a Fire TV smartphone and tablet app is on the way as well, allowing users to play touch-enabled games. Finally, the online retailer also announced several more upcoming features, including a New Prime browse for easier access to the Prime Instant Video library, and Amazon FreeTime and Amazon MP3 services via a future free software update.

"We're excited and energized by the momentum we're seeing with Fire TV," said Dave Limp, Vice President, Amazon Devices. "Customers are telling us they love it, developers are building for it, and we’re working hard to expand existing features and build new ones. We're thrilled to have Hulu Plus, Crackle, and SHOWTIME integrating their full selection of movies and TV shows into Fire TV’s unified voice search."

The Amazon Fire TV is now available for $99.

Source: Amazon

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