If you want to find a way to free Alexa from your Amazon Echo and instead find her a home on your wrist, there’s a new app that can help with that. Meet Voice in a Can, a new thirdparty app initially spotted by the Verge, which allows you to use Alexa on your Apple Watch. No longer will you be tied to Siri when using your iEmpire wearable — now, if you prefer Alexa’s smarts to those of Apple’s native smart assistant, you can have your cake and eat it, too.
The stand-alone Apple Watch app requires only a Wi-Fi signal or LTE connection — you don’t need an iPhone in order to use Alexa on your wrist (at least, not with this app). While Apple itself has limited the number of digital assistants you can utilize to just one (Siri, of course), Voice in a Can leverages a watch complication in order to bypass Apple’s restrictions. All you need to do is sync the app to your existing Amazon Alexa account, then tap on an icon within the app to launch Alexa and have her respond to your queries.
Alas, because this is a third-party app, there are a few (rather important) things that Voice in a Can can’t do. For example, Alexa on your Apple Watch won’t be able to make calls, play music, or make the same announcements you could find on an Amazon Echo. That said, you can use it to leverage all the various smart home features you’ve come to expect from Alexa; for example, you can tell Alexa to turn on or off your lights, check your laundry cycle, or do anything else that you would be able to do from a normally Alexa-compatible device.
We should warn you that like other Apple Watch apps, Voice in a Can isn’t exactly the fastest app on the market, and for now, you’ll actually have to pay in order to get Alexa on your wrist. The app will set you back $1.99 (still cheaper than buying an Echo device). Of course, Apple may one day offer Alexa support on the Apple Watch, as it did for the iPhone, but if you don’t want to wait, this app may be the workaround you’ve been in search of. And if you’ve complained about issues with Siri — and many of you have — you might think it’s one of the best Apple Watch apps ever.
