Amazon’s Alexa app for Windows now listens for wake words, just like an Echo Dot - broadwatersniters

Mark Hachman / PCWorld

Naysayers may criticize Microsoft's Cortana for her lack of features, but Microsoft Windows users face an unexpected dilemma: Now that Amazon's Alexa app supports wake dustup on Windows 10, do you actually want deuce assistants listening in?

As of last August, Amazon Alexa mechanically was paired up inside Windows 10's Cortana to assist with select chores. Try it yourself: Order Cortana to "launch Alexa" and you'll have access to Virago's app for shopping and national queries. Tell her to "bargain paperclips," e.g., and Alexa will either add a bill to your check-out procedure pageboy operating theatre, presumably, buy the item if you already have a account with it. Task complete, Cortana takes charge in one case again.

There was also a secondly option: the Amazon Alexa app itself, available from the Windows Shop. But that required typed commands, making it far less useful than, say, an Echo Dot.

As of today that's changed. Now, according to Amazon, if you download and install the Alexa app, the app leave always be listening in the background, awaiting a awaken word—no deman for Cortana to step in.

Is this a job? If you're Amazon, it isn't. But Amazon's timing is interesting, tending that Geoff Fowler, tech columnist for The Washington Post (owned by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos) just detailed a laundry lean of his own privacy concerns, including mistaken Alexa "wake words," the archiving of long time of recordings, and initiatives by the California legislature to block recordings without consent.

You certainly don't have to exercise Amazon's wake word, of flow. And you can prevent going back and deleting Virago's stored recordings. Windows, for its partially, also listens for "viewing words" for Cortana, if you've enabled that feature. But Windows builds its privacy settings right into Windows (Settings > Privacy), while you take in to know where to look within Amazon River, A Fowler points out.

Information technology's almost an philosophical theory question, though. If you'atomic number 75 interested near digital assistants listening in, maybe you've already refused to buy an Reverberation Battery-acid or Google Home. But if you've tried to straddle that line between using Alexa while as wel constraining access, be well-advised: The channel has moved a trifle more in Amazon's favor.

Observe: When you purchase something subsequently clicking links in our articles, we may take in a small commission. Read our affiliate link policy for more details.

As PCWorld's senior editor in chief, Mark focuses on Microsoft news and chip technology, among other beats. Helium has formerly written for PCMag, BYTE, Slashdot, eWEEK, and ReadWrite.