"Yandex Alice" now recognizes two commands at once

Yandex has announced updates that have appeared in the Alice voice assistant and the company's smart home devices in November. Now Alice recognizes two commands at once, can provide a detailed weather forecast, and managing alarms and reminders is now possible in one place in the "House with Alice" application.

Among the changes, "Stations" with "Alice" can now be given two commands simultaneously, instead of one at a time. For example, you can say: "Alice, turn on the backlight and meditation" or "Alice, start the vacuum cleaner and set the alarm for 7:15." This feature is available on all "Stations", "TV Stations" and in the "House with Alice" application. Also, managing reminders and alarms has become more convenient: now all these functions are collected in one place in the "House with Alice" application in the "Productivity" section. In this section, you can set and edit reminders and alarms, as well as choose on which devices they will be played. This feature is available on all "Stations" and "TV Stations".

In addition, a detailed weather forecast has been added. Now, in addition to temperature and precipitation, users can receive information about wind speed and direction, atmospheric pressure, humidity, UV index, lunar phases, water temperature, sunrise and sunset times. You can enable the provision of this data in the "House with Alice" application, in the "Virtual Assistant" section in the "Weather" subsection. The function works on all "Stations" and "TV Stations".

Among other new features, "Station Duo Max" now displays the date and day of the week on the screen. In addition, it has become faster to execute the "Quieter" and "Louder" commands due to the fact that they are now processed locally on the device. In the future, it is planned to add a search for films in online cinemas, a search for music not only by voice, but also through an on-screen keyboard, as well as personal recommendations for each family member. An updated "Station Mini 3" with an LED screen, "Alice" based on Yandex GPT, smart home support with connection via Matter over Wi-Fi and a 12-watt speaker has also been released. It is available in lilac, black and gray.

In addition, "TV Station" will now suggest what to watch next. The device will automatically suggest the next video on RuTube, VK Video and other platforms. The range of smart lighting devices has also been expanded: seven new light bulbs with different modes, smart switches and relays with Zigbee protocol support have appeared.