Huawei has announced that its latest flagship phone, the beefy Mate 9, will arrive in the US on January 6th pre-installed with an app that gives users access to Amazon’s Alexa. Huawei says the app will offer customers a “natural, convenient user interface” for talking to the digital assistant, and will be capable of all the usual tasks — setting alarms, making to-do lists, and getting information about the news and weather.

It’s minor milestone for Amazon, which has been pushing its digital assistant into an increasing selection of gadgets. This is the first time, though, that Alexa has come pre-installed on a phone — making for a definite, if quiet, challenge to Apple’s Siri and the Google Assistant. The same app will be delivered to…

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