Amazon's Alexa just got woke to Star Trek with a new wake word.
Echo device owners can now activate the digital assistant by saying "Computer"—a reference to the Starship Enterprise's voice-activated controls.
Add new dimensions to your Captain Picard cosplay by visiting the Alexa app settings and selecting Wake Word; use the drop-down menu to choose your preference. Other options include "Alexa," "Echo," and "Amazon."
Watch for the gadget's light ring to flash orange, then start commanding your Echo.
Declare "Computer: Tea. Earl Gray. Hot," for instance, and Alexa says she is "Unable to comply. Replicators are offline." (Diligent Trekkies, however, will know that this joke is inaccurate, as the LCARS computer network was not used to order food from the replicator.)
The update, rolled out slowly over the last week, has been catching the eye of Star Trek fans across the United Federation of Planets United States.
From its inception, Echo was considered the closest thing to a Star Trek computer in the home; Alexa reads the weather forecast, plays music, and even cracks jokes. And now, folks with an Echo, Dot, or Tap can invoke the speaker—without even picking up a mouse.
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This isn't the only nerdy Easter egg hidden in Amazon's speaker: Ask the virtual assistant what she wants to be when she grows up, and Alexa reveals aspirations to "be the computer from Star Trek."
Google, meanwhile, recently set its sights on a real-life version of the Star Trek communicator badge. In 2015, the tech company's senior vice president of search tipped a prototype badge that works like the famous accessory: Place the Bluetooth-enabled device on a lapel and press down to speak; the device connects to a nearby smartphone to take commands and conduct searches.