Now a new phrase needs to be added to everyone’s evergrowing list of wake up commands. ‘Hey Pandora’ will soon be able to start the internet radio app Pandora for a hands-free experience as reported by The Verge. Some users already have the new addition, but the feature will be widely available to both iOS and Android users in a few weeks.
Some requests that can be said after ‘Hey Pandora’
- Control requests to change stations, control volume, skip or pause music, and other basic navigation commands.
- Thematic requests delivering personalized music based on each user’s unique tastes, moods, and favorite activities like “play something for my workout” or “play music for relaxing.”
- Open-ended requests like “play something different,” “play something I like” or “play more like this.”
- Basic requests for a specific artist, song, station, podcast or playlist like “play new music by…” or “play my happy jams playlist.”
- Interactive requests like “what song is this?” or directional requests like “add this song to my party playlist” or “I like this” to give a thumbs-up.
There is something very satisfying about saying ‘Hey Pandora, I like this.’
One of the toughest parts of speech based commands, especially in the world of music, is that some apps don’t get band names or last names quite right. Try to ask Alexa to play Joe Hisaishi radio and you can almost see the echo overheating. Also, let the radio station play for a few songs. It’s a sneaky recommendation in the middle of this, but worth it. Pandora knows the struggle and is partnering with Soundhound Inc’s Houndify voice and conversational AI platform. Houndify will ‘deliver unprecedented speed, accuracy, and intelligence in voice recognition and understanding’ per Pandora’s recent press release.
Do you use Pandora? What are your favorite radio stations? Let us know in the comments!