If you have the Boom and Megaboom speakers from Ultimate Ears, then the latest update will probably not make you very happy. Instead of adding some new features or fixing something that’s broken with the app, what it does is actually remove something that you may have found quite useful. The update has removed Alexa controls and tap-to-talk features from these two speakers in order to enhance their core functionality. In other words, they will just become your average, Bluetooth speakers.
Ultimate Ears released the statement, saying that this is part of their strategy to focus on what the Boom and Megaboom speakers do best. They are “focusing resources on the current app” and would rather improve on their “core, most widely used features”. Put it that way, it’s pretty understandable but if you already relied on Alexa’s AI digital assistant, then it’s a bummer.
It’s not really that much of a surprise though, given the fact that the Alexa functionality is not that useful anyway when the speakers can’t connect to your home WiFi network or if you’re responding to it from across the room and it’s not within range. They’ve probably assumed that not a lot of people use Alexa with the Boom and Megaboom speakers so they would just rather focus on what people actually use it for, which is most likely to play music.
But UE hasn’t given up on Amazon’s digital assistant altogether. If you still want to use Alexa to help you out, the UE Megablast and the Blast Wi-Fi speakers still have support for it. That’s because these speakers can still understand what you’re trying to ask or hear what command you’re giving even from across the room.
While you probably can still hold on to Alexa if you don’t update your app, but as we all know, updating to the latest version is best practice when it comes to apps.
VIA: Engadget
