Alexa can now track Uber Eats orders in the US

Uber is announcing a new integration with Alexa today that’ll allow you to track your Uber Eats orders via Amazon’s voice assistant in the US. Amazon says the feature will provide updates about the status of an order from when it’s being prepared right through to when Uber’s driver arrives with your food. You have the option of having Alexa proactively announce each stage of the order process or light up its notification light so you can ask for the update yourself.

Now if you’re thinking “Hang on, I thought you’d been able to do this for years?” then I don’t blame you! Uber announced support for hailing a ride via Alexa way back in 2016 (we even made a Verge video about it at the time), and last year, it added the ability to order Uber Eats using both Siri and Google Assistant. So similar functionality has been around for a while. It’s also worth noting that the Alexa integration only allows you to track orders — there’s no option to place an order with your voice. 

“Simple ambient experiences let customers be more present with family and friends — they don’t need to be distracted by checking for delivery updates on their mobile apps,” said Amazon’s Mark Yoshitake. He adds that the Uber Eats integration means customers can “trust Alexa to let them know when their driver is approaching with their order, or update them if there is a material change to the estimated delivery time.”

The Alexa integration is available now in the Uber Eats app in the US, where a “Track with Alexa” option can be found in its Voice Assistant settings menu. You can then enable the updates from the order tracking screen after checkout.