Domino’s Pizza announces ordering via Amazon Echo, painstakingly avoids mentioning the Super Bowl
To order a pizza, users must connect their Domino’s account through the Alexa companion app. Users can then say “Alexa, open Domino’s and place my Easy Order,” or “open Domino’s and place my most recent order.” Users can also check on a delivery by saying “Alexa, ask Domino’s to track my order.”
(As an aside, Domino’s press release is a mildly amusing read for how it makes every effort to not use NFL trademarks, referring to the Super Bowl as “the big Feb. 7 game,” and the Broncos and Panthers as “the Denver and North Carolina football teams.”)
The new feature takes advantage of Alexa Skills Kit, which allows third-party apps and services to hook into Amazon’s cloud-based digital voice assistant. As of last month, these third-party skills had grown to support more than 130 voice actions, according to TechCrunch. (Yes, you can even make Echo fart on command.)
Amazon isn’t just offering these voice commands for the Echo. Alexa is also part of Amazon’s Fire TV devices and will eventually be available on third-party hardware products, such as connected alarm clocks. In other words, you might some day be able to order a pizza by uttering the magic words from anywhere in your house.
Why this matters: Domino’s says the Super Bowl—er, “Sunday’s football game”—is one of its busiest days of the year, and the company expects to delivery five times more pizza than it does on a typical Sunday. Beyond just impressing guests with hands-free ordering, being able to track a delivery could be useful during what will likely be longer-than-usual wait times.