Amazon has introduced a groundbreaking artificial intelligence–powered enhancement for its Fire TV ecosystem: a feature that empowers viewers to navigate directly to specific moments in films simply by describing the desired scene to Alexa Plus, the platform’s newly upgraded voice assistant. Announced previously during Amazon’s hardware showcase in September, this addition now comes to life, integrating seamlessly with Prime Video and extending the capabilities of the acclaimed X-Ray tool — the feature that already enriches the viewing experience by revealing actor details, character backgrounds, and behind-the-scenes information about the content onscreen.
At the heart of Amazon’s announcement lies a clear objective: to eliminate friction between the viewer and their desired content. The company emphasizes that Fire TV’s primary mission is to connect users with what they want to watch as quickly and intuitively as possible. Instead of endlessly scrubbing through a timeline or guessing at timestamps, users can now simply articulate what they remember — a fragment of dialogue, a reference to a striking visual, or even the tone of a moment — just as one might describe it to a friend. Instantly, Alexa Plus interprets the request and transports the viewer directly to that precise cinematic scene, effectively replacing manual searching with a swift and intelligent response.
Amazon explains that Alexa Plus leverages complex AI comprehension to understand not only straightforward commands but also contextual and natural language descriptions. The technology currently functions across thousands of Prime Video films, recognizing scene summaries, the names of characters or performers, and even lines of iconic dialogue that once would have required exact searches. For instance, a viewer might simply ask to “find the card scene in Love Actually,” or reference a famous question like “where Joshua asks, ‘shall we play a game?’” from WarGames — and Alexa Plus will identify and display the requested moment with remarkable precision.
The goal of this feature extends far beyond novelty. It streamlines the often tedious process of finding particular scenes, eliminating the need to scroll or repeatedly rewind through lengthy films. In doing so, it reduces the temptation for users to turn to alternate platforms such as YouTube, where similar clips might previously have been more accessible. According to Amazon, this advanced functionality is powered by a blend of AI models including Amazon Nova and Anthropic Claude, systems capable of parsing descriptive language and linking it to relevant cinematic moments. Notably, the technology can even locate the correct film without the user explicitly naming it, demonstrating a sophisticated understanding of visual and narrative context.
At present, the enhanced search capability is limited to indexed scenes within a curated selection of films. These include titles that subscribers can stream on Prime Video through their memberships, as well as movies acquired through purchase or rental. Nevertheless, Amazon has stated that this rollout marks only the beginning of a broader vision. Expanded availability is on the horizon, with plans to incorporate additional scenes and, eventually, entire television series, ensuring that Alexa Plus will become an increasingly indispensable tool for content discovery and cinematic exploration across the Fire TV experience.
Sourse: https://www.theverge.com/news/837156/amazon-fire-tv-alexa-plus-skip-to-scene
