Amazon’s Alexa teams with Nutritionix to help users keep track of calories

Since Amazon debuted its AI-powered Alexa virtual assistant in 2014, the innovative platform has allowed users to accomplish a variety of tasks such as setting cook timers, building shopping lists, or dimming the lights. But what about helping people track their daily intake of calories? Announced this week as a special collaboration between Amazon’s Siri competitor and the nutrition-tracking application Nutritionix, Alexa now boasts the capability of sharing nutrition information while also keeping extensive personal food logs.

Long known for its work developing a suite of interactive tools and apps geared towards nutrition, Nutritionix’s unique food-tracking service, Track by Nutritionix, has put the company heads and shoulders above its competition. Not only does it feature the largest verified nutrition database in the world — i.e., more than 490,000 verified grocery items and 107,000 restaurant items — but it also gives its users the ability to track calories in an effort to stay fit or lose weight.

Nutritionix

“We’re thrilled to work with Nutritionix to launch the Nutritionix Alexa skill, providing an even larger nutrition and food database to our customers,” said Rob Pulciani, director of Amazon Alexa. “It’s more conventional to track your daily food and nutrition when you can use your voice. Alexa now has more nutritional data, so customers are better equipped than ever to tackle their health and fitness goals, just using their voice.”

By simply uttering the phrase “Alexa, ask Food Tracker,” owners have access to Nutritionix’s vast database, as well as information pertaining to any of the eleven essential nutrients. Adding foods to their Track by Nutritionix log also makes it incredibly easy for users to keep a keen eye on everything they eat throughout the day.

“Our mission is to make it easier for people to understand what they eat,” Nutritionix’s Director of Product Matt Silverman said. “Through the launch of our Amazon Alexa skill, we are excited to enable millions of Amazon Alexa users to better understand and keep track of the foods they eat every day.”

To activate Nutritionix’s new feature, Alexa users need to simply search for “Track by Nutrionix” via the Alexa app. Even non-Alexa users can take advantage of Nutritionix’s innovative tracking feature by downloading the Nutritionix app via an iOS- or Android-enabled smartphone.

from Planet GS via John Jason Fallows on Inoreader http://ift.tt/1TXV9hD
Rick Stella