The Amazon Echo has played Trojan horse for the giant online retailer, situating Amazon in a prime area of the home: the always-on virtual assistant. With the help of Alexa, Amazon's version of Siri, the company is able to serve users the latest news, offer weather updates, play a song on Spotify, hail an Uber or more, all via voice. Amazon announced last month that Alexa would come to the Fire tablet. Today it finally arrives.

In an update, Amazon is releasing its Alexa virtual assistant to the Fire HD 8, meaning every owner of the tablet with an internet connection can grab the free update and make use of Alexa's expansive list of skills. Unlike the Amazon Echo and Echo Dot, the tablet's microphone will not always be listening for the trigger word "Alexa" or "Amazon"--a similar trade-off we've seen in Amazon's bluetooth speaker, the Tap. If you're privacy-conscious and worried an always-listening microphone could prove problematic, this could be the flavor of Alexa for you.