We learned in January that Huawei would update it’s Mate 9 smartphone with Amazon Alexa integration, making it the first smartphone ever to do so. We’ve been waiting around for the update ever since then. But according to the company, it’s already starting to roll out.
Huawei says that starting this afternoon, users can expect the Alexa-enabling OTA update to hit their Mate 9. Unfortunately, Alexa won’t work system wide (for instance via a long-press of the home button). Instead, it’ll work inside an app which will include one button to activate the voice assistant. You’ll still have all the functionality you would if you used an Echo or a Fire tablet, but this may be rather inconvenient for some.
Nevertheless, Huawei appears to not have much of a want for Google to include their own software on the Mate 9. Since Alexa won’t be accessible via a long-press of the home button, Google will still reign supreme in terms of accessibility with the Assistant. But with moves like this, closer integration with third-party services and ridding the need for Google in the first place may be the goal Huawei is attempting to reach.
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