Wondering where to order Uber Eats? Alexa will soon be able to tell you. Amazon today announced a new partnership with Uber that will give Echo device owners the ability to track Uber Eats orders via Amazon’s voice assistant. Starting later this month, Uber Eats users will be able to turn on a new order tracking feature that allows them to get updates via the Echo smart speaker, depending on their preferences.
Amazon has struggled to get users to adopt its third-party voice apps, known as Alexa Skills, as Echo users tend to use their devices for basic tasks, such as setting timers, playing music, or controlling their smart home. Uber’s integration may prompt Alexa device owners to try something new as it will see Uber’s marketing of an order-tracking feature in its own app, helping drive adoption.
When the update rolls out, users will be able to turn on the new “Track with Alexa” option in the Voice Assistant settings for the Uber Eats app. Then, after checking out the food order, they can click a new Alexa button to start tracking the progress of the order.
Uber Eats x Alexa
There are two ways Echo owners can receive order tracking updates. They can opt for the more traditional notification method which changes the Echo’s blue ring light to yellow, to which customers can respond by saying, “Alexa, what’s my notification?” This is similar to how Alexa users can check for updates on their Amazon delivery, for example.
The other option would allow Alexa to actually announce when there’s a change in order status to one or all of your Echo home devices. This way, Uber Eats customers don’t have to keep checking their phone to see where their order is, as Alexa will announce when the food is ready, when it’s picked up for delivery, and when the driver has arrived at their home.
Alexa will also announce when something changes in the order, such as if it was canceled for some reason.
Uber has worked closely with Amazon on how this feature works. I’ve decided to make the feature something that the user has to enable on every request, rather than something that gets triggered at the account level. The company believed that the latter might have risky downsides.
“For example, imagine a customer who placed an order for a sandwich, but forgot they turned on hands-free notifications with Alexa. Now imagine they have a sleeping baby at home,” Uber Eats lead product manager Ethan Holinshed explained in a blog post. Or imagine a scenario where someone places an order while traveling, only to have Alexa give notifications to everyone in the house.
Instead, the new experience combines the convenience of having Alexa alert you to updates on a subscription basis, but without the annoying downsides of always-on integration. You can choose whether you want Alexa alerts on every request.
The feature, which joins other Uber integrations with Google Assistant and Siri, is expected to reach Uber Eats customers in the US later this month.