• Amazon and Disney have teamed up to launch a brand new voice assistant, revealed at CES 2023.
• Called Hey Disney!, the device functions like a normal Alexa assistant but with the voice of famous Disney characters.
• The device is coming to hotel rooms across Disney resorts and will be available to purchase in the US in the coming months.

A new voice assistant looks to be coming from Amazon after a partnership with media titan Disney. The device will be made available for homes and will be installed within hotel rooms at Disney resorts, such as those in Orlando, Paris and Tokyo.

It will also be available for home purchase in the US in the coming months.

Called “Hey Disney!”, the gadget was revealed at this year’s CES 2023 and is built upon the Alexa Custom Assistant AI foundation. This platform allows the creation of custom voices for Alexa assistants, and Hey Disney! will talk as fan-favourite characters from the brand.

“Say hello to Hey Disney! the all-new voice assistant for Alexa. You’ll be able to get the weather with Mickey, joke around with the galaxy’s funniest droids C-3PO and R2-D2, go on adventures with Dory or Olaf, listen to your favourite Disney stories, plus a lot more,” according to Amazon.

For example, Amazon says that if you ask Hey Disney! for the weather, Olaf from Frozen might tell you that it’s cold outside. Another pointed example is that it can play you the “soundscape” of Ratatouille to get in the mood for cooking.

With this, it seems the device is an Amazon Alexa assistant with a screen and Mickey Mouse ears. One that is aimed at children through the capability of using Disney’s library of world-famous characters and their voices and Disney’s stories to provide Alexa-like services.

Hey Disney! can also play trivia – we imagine its Disney trivia – and play jokes for children.

The device seems to be focused first on Disney hotels, and second on home use.

“As a first-of-its-kind voice assistant, Hey Disney! continues Disney’s long tradition of using technology to provide the coolest, most convenient experiences to make your visit better,” said Dan Soto, Disney’s vice president of technology and digital.

“We’re always looking for new ways to open the door to even more stories, making them richer, more immersive, and forever memorable to guests and fans, whether they are at home or visiting Disney Parks.”

At the moment the partnership between Amazon and Disney for the Hey Disney! is apparently a niche one. Looking to deck out Disney hotel rooms, and be available for parents whose children are Disney-crazy to take home.

The timing of the device’s announcement coincides with a report released late last year detailing how Amazon Alexa devices have consistently been difficult for the ecommerce giant to sell.

Some employees within the Alexa division have called the voice assistant as “a colossal failure of imagination” because, according to the report, Amazon has no idea how to properly market and sell the devices.

This team-up is definitely on the more imaginative side and showcases the customisable nature of Alexa to provide personalised voice assistants for resorts and hotel rooms. This trend could see Alexas popping up at other resorts if successful.

Imagine massive hotel brands decking out their rooms with personalised Alexas, ones that you can order room service through or ask what interesting things are available within the area of the hotel. That sounds cool to us.

But none of that is currently planned, and for now, the Disney-Amazon partnership will provide a Disney-themed voice assistant, marketed to children specifically.

Hey Disney! will be released in the US in the coming months, and units are already being installed in Disney hotel rooms in select resorts. At this point, it seems unlikely that the gadget will reach South Africa, but if Amazon manages to make Alexa a hotel room requirement, themed voice assistants could be more common in the future.

However, that remains a big if.

[Image – Amazon]