Alexa didn’t get a big splashy launch event, or come with a bunch of grand proclamations about being the future of anything. Instead, like a phone charger with a made-up name or a knockoff version of your favorite blush, it just kind of appeared on Amazon one day.
Ten years ago this week, on November 6th, 2014, Amazon launched the Echo and the smart speaker era. The device quickly spawned countless more, from Amazon and others. It became the emblem of a voice-first way of using technology, the “ambient computing” revolution Amazon and others came to believe would change how we do everything. Now there are Alexa devices in millions of homes, just listening and chirping away all day.
On this episode of The Vergecast, we wrestle with what all that really adds up to. The Verge’s Jennifer Pattison Tuohyjoins the show to talk about the reasons for that surprise 2014 launch, the …