Fans of the Queen’s Christmas Day broadcast will be able to pick up a fingerless listen – and not just because TV has been tuning BBC 1 from The Gruffalo at 8.55am. Alexa users can call Her Majesty into their living rooms from 3pm GMT with the words “Alexa, play the Queen’s Christmas Day message”.
The privilege is not just reserved for Brits. Anyone with their Amazon Echo based in English – be it British, American, Australian, Canadian or Indian – can listen to the speech, Amazon has stated.
“After a challenging year, millions of people from across the Commonwealth will be eagerly awaiting Her Majesty The Queen’s message on Christmas Day,” said Eric King, director of Alexa Europe. “By creating this first global innovation, just as we did in 2012 when the Queen’s Christmas speech on Kindle was released, we hope that even more people can to enjoy Her Majesty’s words of encouragement. ”
The Queen may not be the first to new technologies, but when she does arrive it will often be a shower. Her first Christmas television broadcast came in 1957, four years after she credited her television coronatio for promoting TV adoption across the UK. She posted her first tweet in 2014, more than six years after the service was launched, from an iPad at the Science Museum.
For those who don’t have an Amazon Alexa tool at home, all is not lost – as long as you get the time right. Google Home owners will have to wait for the clock to strike 3pm and then say “OK Google, play BBC Radio 4”.
This year The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh will have a quiet Christmas, having decided to celebrate as a couple rather than form a bubble with their relatives, despite the UK’s coronavirus restrictions. rest for a while.
This is the first time in more than 30 years that the monarch and Philip have stayed at Windsor Castle for Christmas rather than heading to Sandringham in Norfolk.