Ready to get started with that connected-home smart-future we've all been promised? Well, Sony has taken another little step towards it by adding Alexa support - Amazon's voice assistant found in the Amazon Echo - to some of its TVs.
According to a support post, "with this feature you can use your voice to turn your Android TV on or off, change channels, control volume, and more".
"More", in this case, means playing, pausing, fast-forwarding, rewinding, and stopping your content. If you've got multiple TVs, you lucky thing, you can control them individually by saying their specific name; "Media Room TV", or "TV 1" are two examples Sony gives.
Selected 2016 and 2017 Sony TVs will have the "TV Control Setup with Amazon Alexa" app (catchy name) added to the home screen automatically, including the new A1 OLED. To check if your TV is one of the compatible televisions, you can use this list here.
The news means that the Google Home speaker is no longer the only smart speaker capable of controlling Android TVs - it uses Chromecast - and could mean that other speakers from Apple (the HomePod), Microsoft (the Invoke), and Samsung (the, uh, as yet unnamed speaker that has Bixby built-in) might follow suit.
While the current popularity of the Echo range certainly gives it an advantage, expect more link-ups between various manufacturers and devices to follow.
Read more:
10 of the world's most expensive TVs
Amazon's next Echo speaker will focus on sound quality
25 Amazon Echo tips, tricks and features
Amazon Echo vs Google Home – which is better?
Samsung's Bixby personal assistant could soon sound much more human
