Starbucks Unveils Voice Ordering for iPhone App and Amazon's Talking Alexa Speakers
January 30 2017 - 8:45PM
Dow Jones News
By Nathan Olivarez-Giles
Soon, you will be able to speak to your iPhone about how you
want your latte, then find your prepaid drink waiting at a nearby
Starbucks. And if you have a go-to drink, you can just ask Alexa to
order one up for you.
The voice-interface craze reached a new height when Starbucks
Corp. announced two forms of voice ordering on Monday, on iPhones
and on the talking speakers featuring Amazon.com Inc.'s Alexa
assistant.
The iPhone app -- which began testing and will launch widely
through the summer -- doesn't rely on Siri, Apple Inc.'s voice
assistant. Instead, it has its own "My Starbucks barista," which
listens for orders. You can place an order -- yes, even a wildly
complex order -- for any food or drink on Starbucks's menu at any
nearby store, and pay ahead of time.
For Alexa-powered speakers, the talent is much more limited (but
available already, in the Skills menu in the Alexa app). Once you
have linked your Starbucks account and designated a specific order
and store made from your mobile app, you can simply say "Alexa,
order my Starbucks." If you have a fairly regular beverage routine,
this makes sense.
The new features come after Starbucks tempered its revenue
forecast by admitting that the popularity of its mobile app has
resulted in longer lines at its stores' pickup counters. Those
lines have driven away some potential customers, said Starbucks
Chief Operating Officer Kevin Johnson, in an interview last week
with The Wall Street Journal.
Starbucks declined to say whether voice-controls will increase
or decrease lines at the pick up counter. But Starbucks Chief
Technology Officer Gerri Martin-Flickinger explained in a statement
that gradually rolling out voice ordering could be helpful. "We
expect to learn a lot from these experiences and to evolve them
over time," Ms. Martin-Flickinger said. Starbucks plans to bring
voice ordering to its Android app by the end of the year, she
said.
Write to Nathan Olivarez-Giles at
Nathan.Olivarez-giles@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 30, 2017 20:30 ET (01:30 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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