You can add Alexa to your Home screen with the new 'Ask Alexa' widget

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Color Widgets Iphone Hero (Image credit: Christine Romero-Chan / iMore)

What you need to know

  • A new Alexa app update puts the digital assistant onto your Home screen.
  • A new widget means Alexa is never more than a tap away.

Fans of Amazon's Alexa can now talk to the digital assistant more quickly and easily after the iPhone and iPad app was updated to add support for a new iOS 14 widget.

With the new update installed, talking to Alexa is never more than a tap away and it's an interesting alternative to dealing with Siri for those people who are all-in on the Alexa and Echo ecosystem.

The new widget is one that Alexa fans have been hoping for ever since iOS 14 added support for widgets last year, but it's taken Amazon almost a year to get its act together. It's here now though, and it's looking pretty sweet indeed.

On iOS 14 or higher, you can now add the new Ask Alexa widget to your home screen and tap to talk to Alexa.

Those with the Alexa app installed can go and download the update via the App Store. Everyone getting in on the ground floor can download the app right now. It's free and is a must-have if you're knee-deep in Echo devices.

Amazon's Echo speakers are a great option for anyone looking to add Alexa to their life. Amazon's Echo speaker is arguably the best speaker for audiobook listening, not to mention barking orders at Alexa!

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.