As you may have read in our recent plans for 2018 here on the RailAdvent website, we have been doing some testing on Amazon Echo devices, to allow you to get the RailAdvent headlines as part of your flash briefing.

We are pleased to announce that we are ready to start a limited Beta Test with some of you.

If you have an Amazon Echo device, and would like Alexa to read the latest news from the RailAdvent website, then carry on reading below for more details.

Beta Test Information

As with any Beta test, chances are things won’t always go to plan every time!

We are aware of the following issues and are looking at different ways around them…

• Alexa does not understand train numbers, so if we have written 43924 in an article, Alexa says Forty Three Thousand Nine Hundred and Twenty Four, instead of Four Three Nine Two Four
• Alexa can either read the whole article or just part of it, sadly this means that Alexa often stops mid-sentence. We have set it to read the first part of the article, we cannot see the point in reading every article in full, it takes far too long.
• Alexa occasionally says the news is not available, ask it again straight away and it works, seems to depend on the user’s wifi connection.

If you would like an invite to Beta Test our Alexa Skill, and are willing to provide us with some constructive feedback, then please email us at [email protected] putting Alexa as the subject line, we will then get back to you with details of what happens next.

If you don’t have an Echo Device, then you can browse the range on Amazon by clicking below.

Extra Information for Those Already In The Trial…

Current Status: Beta Test Active