Oliver Haslam·

Amazon Adds iCloud Calendar Integration To Alexa-Powered Devices

Amazon has confirmed that users of Apple’s iCloud data syncing service can now use the company’s Echo / Alexa devices to add data to, or read data from their calendars.

Previously, support for calendars on the iCloud service was not available, potentially leaving millions of iOS device owners in the cold.

With the new feature now live, iCloud users can add appointments to their calendars via Amazon’s Echo and Alexa-enabled devices and have them almost immediately populated across their iPhones, iPads and Macs. Alexa can now also retrieve data from those calendars and relay them to the user on demand.

Amazon has confirmed that the feature is already live for users in the U.K., the U.S. and Germany. We have tested the new feature and as you would expect, adding a new calendar entry into iCloud via an Amazon Echo works the same way as it would if you were working with Google Calendar. New appointments synchronize with the speed we have come to expect from such services, with iOS devices reflecting the calendar changes almost instantly.

Setting up the new feature is simple, too. There is a new iCloud entry in the Settings tab of the Alexa app that allows the linking of an account, and that is all that there is to it.

Apple is rumored to be working on its own Echo-like device that could stir things up in a market that consists of Amazon and Google at this point, although the recently announced Essential Home will also be joining the fray later this year. Amazon’s added support for iCloud signals a change in the relationship between the company and Apple, something that has been rumored to be about to bring the Apple TV to Amazon’s web stores and the Amazon Prime Video app to the Apple TV App Store. Both developments would be well received, the latter in particular.

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