Alexa voice skill now available on Whooshkaa

Whooshkaa and Amazon have teamed up to make a new voice skill available to podcasters and listeners.

Listeners can now request podcasts and episodes directly from voice-activated Amazon Alexa devices.

Previously a third party service like Tune-In was needed to use the voice skill.

Whooshkaa is an audio-on-demand platform providing world-class technology to broadcasters, publishers and podcasters.

It will be available for all podcasts hosted by Whooshkaa, which include Australian True Crime, Chat 10 Looks 3, SEN, The Betoota Advocate, The Health Code and all official AFL and NRL podcasts.

Alexa will recognise instructions about the podcast or episode, as well as play, skip and resume from previous points in the episode.

For example, the listener can say “play the most recent episode of Australian True Crime”.

“Our software engineers worked closely with the Alexa team at Amazon to be able to achieve this functionality for podcasters and listeners,” said Whooshkaa founder and CEO Rob Loewenthal.

“We’re the first global podcast hosting platform to enable podcasters to deploy their own Alexa skill for their podcast.”

Amazon Alexa is available with an Australian voice and personality.

“We’re delighted to work with Whooshkaa to make podcasts easier for listeners to enjoy, and easier for podcasters to publish,” said Kate Burleigh, country manager, Alexa Skills, Amazon.

“This is great news for independent podcasters, who now have a way for customers in Australia and across the world to get their content just by asking for it.”