Time Out, the leading global media and entertainment brand that inspires and enables people to make the most of the city, has teamed up with Amazon to launch the Time Out Flash Briefings skill for the Amazon Alexa, available on Alexa-enabled devices such as Amazon Echo. These are the first daily briefings about the three best things to do in NYC, L.A., Chicago and London – curated and hand-picked every day by Time Out’s on the ground editors who are always at the pulse of the city. Because in the world’s great cities there are good times going down somewhere every day.
While pouring that morning kick-off coffee and getting ready for the day, urbanites in NYC, L.A., Chicago and London can get the low-down by turning to Alexa and asking ‘Alexa, what is my daily briefing?’ or ‘Alexa, what is my flash briefing?’ after adding Time Out to their daily flash briefing. In three minutes or less, she will talk about the three unmissable things to do today in the selected city. Time Out’s briefing will also inform listeners about the tickets bookable on its website for shows and events.
To use the Time Out skill for Amazon Alexa, users can enable it via the Alexa app, or simply say, ‘Alexa, enable Time Out New York skill’ (or one of the other cities). The command enables the Time Out New York Alexa skill so Time Out’s picks can be listened to daily. Alternatively, the skills can also be manually enabled for each city on Amazon’s website (Time Out New York, Time Out Los Angeles, Time Out Chicago and Time Out London).
Time Out is always exploring new channels to keep its experience-hungry audience in-the-know. The Amazon Alexa integration joins Time Out’s diverse platform including digital, mobile apps, social channels and highly-curated magazines which are connecting consumers and businesses with a city. Alexa enables Time Out to spread its influence further within the evolving digital world, reaching tech-savvy millennials and urbanites looking to make the most of the city.
Christine Petersen, CEO of Time Out Digital, commented: “We were so delighted when Amazon asked us to launch ‘a daily best of the city’ in NYC, L.A., Chicago and London for Alexa and we are thrilled to share our unique insights on this incredible device. We are always on the lookout for new ways to reach experience-hungry urbanites with our highly-curated content about a city’s events, restaurants, bars, art, music, theater, hotels – whether that’s through our websites, mobile apps, social channels, magazines and now also through Amazon Alexa.
“Whether you’ve got a leisurely morning or dashing out the door, you can now listen to Time Out through Alexa and hear about the three best things happening in the city today. There’s something new every day, which our Time Out Flash Briefing will share with Alexa users. It’s exciting to align these two great brands and feature on an innovative product to inspire millions more people.”
Time Out Flash Briefing is available to use today on Amazon Alexa devices. User can add the feature by visiting alexa.amazon.com in a web browser or open the Amazon Alexa app on Android or iOS and selecting Time Out as Flash Briefing content. Or, just ask Alexa!