Updated: Roku Has Reportedly Canceled Plans For its Own Voice Assistant That Would Have Challenged Siri, Google, & Alexa


By

on

in

, ,

For some time now, we have heard that Roku was working on building its own voice assistant. Back in January 2018, at CES it was even shown off but now The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Roku has canceled plans to introduce its own voice assistant that would take on Alexa and Siri.

Update; Roku has reached out to say The Wall Street Journal story was incorrect. Roku is still continuing to develop voice capabilities around the entertainment experience on the Roku platform now called Roku Voice.

Here is the demo of the Roku assistant that was shown off at CES 2018.

Instead of building its own voice assistant, Roku recently added support for Google Assistant and Alexa. This also explains why the TCL soundbar that was going to come with the Roku Assitant was never released with it.

Roku has always tried to be an open platform welcome to all. Now it seems Roku has decided it would be better for Roku to work with Google and Amazon on voice support instead of trying to compete head to head.

Roku has also reportedly been working on a WiFi extender that would help improve weak WiFi to help improve streaming. When looking at the causes of buffering, weak Wi-Fi is typically one of the main causes.

According to Bloomberg, the device is still being developed but Roku has not decided on if they will even sell the device yet. Yet it looks like the device is fairly far along in development. According to the report, the device is only 6 inches tall and 4 inches wide. It will plug into a wall outlet and allow you to extend your current W-iFi network.

For now, we will have to wait and see if and when Roku announces this new WiFi extender.

Please follow us on Facebook and Twitter for more news, tips, and reviews. Need cord cutting tech support? Join our Cord Cutting Tech Support Facebook Group for help.

Did you know we have a YouTube Channel? Every week we have a live Cord Cutting Q&A, and weekly Cord Cutting recap shows exclusively on our YouTube Channel!

Disclaimer: To address the growing use of ad blockers we now use affiliate links to sites like http://Amazon.com, streaming services, and others. Affiliate links help sites like Cord Cutters News, stay open. Affiliate links cost you nothing but help me support my family. We do not allow paid reviews on this site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

* indicates required

Please select all the ways you would like to hear from :

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. For information about our privacy practices, please visit our website.

We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By clicking below to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp’s privacy practices here.