“Hey, Disney! Amazon and Disney welcome new era of Alexa-style voice assistants

Alexa is no longer alone. The Amazon Echo has its first new voice assistant – a Disney brand personality who brings his movie characters to life with games, bedtime stories, jokes, and songs to sing along to, among other skills.

It’s called Hey Disney – and saying those words will activate a unique voice that coexists with Alexa on Echo devices, designed by Disney to unlock interactive Disney entertainment. It will be available next year for Walt Disney World hotel room guests and for purchase as an add-on for anyone with an Echo device.

Disney has not said how much this download-at-home assistant will cost. But don’t think of it as a replacement for Alexa. Hey, Disney doesn’t shop, read the news, or control your smart home.

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So why pay for something that isn’t Alexa? If you have kids, you might already know the answer. This “magical companion”, as Disney calls it, can have a blast with jokes, anecdotes or songs to sing along to. It summons character voices with interactive stories and games – not just with Mickey, but characters from Pixar, Star Wars, and Marvel stories as well. And it will play “soundscapes” as background sounds inspired by movies and theme parks.

It’s programmed to do some of Echo’s basic tricks, such as displaying the time, reading the weather, and setting alarms (probably Disney-style). Disney says her personalized voice has over 1,000 possible interactions – and if you echo it with a screen, there are visuals too.

And that’s just the beginning. In a video interview, Dan Soto, vice president of technology and digital at Disney Parks, said the company may add more features or use them in new ways.

“This only scratches the surface where we can use voice technology for our guests,” Soto added. “We have some pretty special ideas on what we can do for the future with this.”

The Echo Show 5, a smart display with a 5.5-inch touchscreen, is what happens in Disney Florida hotel rooms. And if you want to go all-in on Disney-fication of the Echo at home, there’s a new OtterBox mount that puts Mickey Mouse ears on the Echo Show 5, available for preorder now for $ 25.

Hey Disney at the hotel

While this voice at home may bring light pleasure, there is more value for Hey Disney in its hotels. He can handle some room requests, such as asking for more towels or getting help with baggage and payment. He can also answer questions about the resort, such as when the next bus leaves for Epcot, where to find an Italian restaurant, or what time the park opens or closes. Having a computer to handle routine tasks like this could save time for both guests and Disney staff in the background.

With the Echo Show 5 devices added to over 30,000 rooms, that’s a lot of Amazon’s across the Disney property. But those devices are tweaked for guest privacy: Disney says the camera and call features are turned off, and the speakers are inactive and muted when a guest walks into a room. Guests will need to register to activate the speakerphone.

There’s also no way to buy anything on the hotel versions of Hey Disney (so parents don’t have to worry about receiving surprise pizza deliveries to the room.)

While these Disney Hotel Echo devices focus on Hey Disney, they’ll still include some of Alexa’s voice. Amazon’s OG Assistant can respond to guest requests to read the news or play music, but it won’t turn on the TV or room lights (at least not yet).

It’s Alexa for hospitality, made in Disney

Disney isn’t the first hotel to install Echo devices in guest rooms. The Alexa for Hospitality program has been in existence since 2018, with Marriott hotels among the first to participate. It gives hotels the power to control what they want Alexa to do, and it adds more privacy controls for guests, like not recording voice command history.

The Legoland Resort in Florida added Echo Dots to its Pirate Island hotel earlier this year. A note on the top of the speaker reads: “Ahoy matey, I’m Alexa.” There is no special Legoland assistant or voice, but Alexa can be summoned to tell a bedtime story told by a pirate or to start a room scavenger hunt. (And yes, this Alexa has pirate jokes.)

The Disney Assistant has his own personality and his own voice as he is the first to be launched with Amazon Alexa Personalized Assistant Program. It allows companies to create their own assistants tailored to brand personality or specific customer needs. But behind the scenes, the technology is coming from Amazon.

The personalized Alexa assistant isn’t limited to hotels. Brands can put their own button on Alexa anywhere. It could be a voice in a car that offers special skills related to a particular vehicle. Maybe you hire a brand’s special assistant for specific activities, like cooking or exercising. Disney is only the first to develop its own using Amazon technology.

Having multiple assistants on the Echo is new territory for Amazon. But Aaron Rubenson, vice president of Alexa Everywhere, describes multiple voices as appealing to different friends throughout the day.

“You can tell a friend about their favorite music, you can tell another friend about their favorite Disney characters or their Disney movies,” Rubenson said. “Likewise, we believe customers should be able to choose to interact with a variety of voice assistants on any given device. Everyone can have their own skills and abilities.

It is possible that we have a future where the Echo speakers will be filled with assistants from different brands. It may depend on how many people love this new Disney character.