Alexa Bill Payment in India Now On Android App
Amazon customers in India can now pay for electricity, water, gas, and other bills using the Alexa voice assistant on the Amazon Android app. The new feature comes just a few months after Amazon added voice shopping to its mobile app in the country.
Android Bills
Like voice shopping, the new feature uses Android to integrate Alexa into the process of paying for a variety of bills, including broadband and mobile phones. The user just has to tap the microphone at the top of the shopping app and say “Alexa, pay my electricity bill” or whatever other bills they want to take care of using the voice assistant. The first time a customer uses it they have to register their account and service details, but after that, the voice command will pull up the page with all of the details filled out. Voice commands can also be used for adding money to an Amazon account or checking how much is in there.
The new option expands the Alexa payment option in India first introduced in October. Along with the Android app, Amazon customers can pay their bills with Alexa on Echo smart speakers, Fire TVs, and any other device that uses Alexa. They can also make the transaction more secure using a voice PIN. India became the first place for utility payments by Alexa, before expanding the service worldwide. The same may end up being true for payments through the Android app.
Voice Bills
Voice payments are becoming more common beyond Alexa and Google Assistant too. In India, ICICI Bank, one of the largest in the country, recently launched voice apps for Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. Those voice apps expand the company’s iPal AI from a pure text chatbot, allowing customers to carry out banking tasks through either voice assistant. And the move toward voice-based financial transactions isn’t isolated to India. Capital One has an Alexa skill for making payments and embedded a voice assistant into its mobile app, for instance, and Bank of America has been busy racking up new patents for its voice-activated virtual financial assistant, Erica. Beyond retail banking, TD Ameritrade started allowing stock transactions through voice platforms, while FIVE, a platform created by a group of credit unions, is enabling members to transfer funds and pay down loans through both Alexa and Google Assistant. In a more prosaic way, people can also use Google Assistant to fill prepaid phone accounts at a distance while visiting the store. Google Assistant has been integrated into the app, allowing the customer to speak their phone number from as much as ten feet away, and the voice assistant will automatically enter it into the Smart Connect Retailer app.
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