You can now ask Amazon's Alexa to donate money to presidential candidates

KEY POINTS

• Amazon is launching a new feature that allows 2020 U.S. Presidential candidates to receive campaign contributions through its Alexa voice assistant.
• Starting next month, Alexa users will be able to contribute up to $200 to any participating candidate by simply saying, "Alexa, donate to [candidate name]."
• The feature, called Alexa Political Contributions, is Amazon's latest move to expand Alexa's use case and increase its engagement with users.

Democratic presidential hopefuls (L-R) Senator of New Jersey Cory Booker, Mayor of South Bend, Indiana, Pete Buttigieg, Senator of Vermont Bernie Sanders, Former Vice President Joe Biden, Senator of Massachusetts Elizabeth Warren and Senator of California Kamala Harris arrive onstage for the third Democratic primary debate of the 2020 presidential campaign season hosted by ABC News in partnership with Univision at Texas Southern University in Houston, Texas on September 12, 2019.

Frederic J. Brown | AFP | Getty Images

Amazon wants to help you make campaign donations more easily — through its Alexa voice assistant.

On Wednesday, Amazon announced the launch of Alexa Political Contributions, a new feature that allows users to make political contributions to any participating U.S. Presidential candidate by simply saying, "Alexa, donate to [candidate name]." The candidates who sign up for the program will be able to accept donations of up to $200 starting next month, the company said. The donations will be processed through Amazon Pay, which uses the payment information stored in users' Amazon accounts to make payments.

The move is Amazon's latest effort to expand Alexa's use case, and increase user engagement with the voice assistant. While Alexa has been a smash hit success since its launch in 2014, becoming the market leader of the nascent voice technology space, its use is still largely limited to menial tasks like playing the music or asking about the weather.

Amazon said the idea for the new political contribution feature came during last year's midterm elections, after seeing a spike in election-related questions, such as when the polls open or who's winning in certain states. It added that more features will be coming as it nears the presidential election. Alexa can already answer certain questions, like who's endorsing which candidate and an update to the next debate, the company said.

"Over the course of the next year we'll continue to add more features and experiences designed to give you easy access to the election information you care about most," Amazon said.

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