I'll admit it: I have a habit of scrolling through movies on streaming services like Disney+, Prime Video, and Netflix just to watch specific scenes I love. For instance, over the weekend, I pulled up Star Wars: A New Hope just to watch that iconic opening crawl and the Star Destroyer gliding across the screen. I also revisited Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban just to see Buckbeak's flight.
Amazon recently announced a new AI-powered Alexa+ feature rolling out now to Fire TVs that allows you to jump to a specific movie scene simply by describing it to Alexa using your natural voice. So, if you're sitting in front of your TV and want to watch a particular moment, you can just say something like, "Jump to the boulder chase scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark," and Prime Video will instantly bring up that scene and start playing it.
"Our number one mission at Fire TV is getting you to what you want to watch -- fast. Today's launch builds on that mission with this new AI-powered feature," Amazon said in a blog post. "Just describe a movie scene like you would to a friend, and Alexa+ will jump directly to that specific moment -- no more searching required."
Amazon Prime Video
- Simultaneous streams
- 3
- # of profiles
- 6
- Originals
- Yes
- Live TV
- Limited (some add-on channels offer live TV)
Amazon's new jump scene feature is exclusively available with Prime Video on Fire TVs
You don't even need to say the movie's name to find the scene you're looking for
The main limitation of Amazon's new Alexa+ jump-to-scene feature is that it only works with Prime Video. Movies from other streaming services, like Netflix, Disney+, or HBO Max, aren't supported. Also, for the feature to work, the movie must be included with your Prime membership or be one you've purchased or rented.
To bring up a scene using Alexa+ on your Fire TV, you don't even need to necessarily bring up the name of the movie, either, as the feature is built to work just by recognizing details like the actor's or character's name, or even a memorable quote.
A few examples Amazon provides are: "Jump to the scene where Deloris Jordan says 'a shoe is just a shoe until my son steps into it'" and "Jump to the scene when John McClane says 'come out to the coast, we'll get together, have a few laughs.'"
Alexa+ offers many features I'd never use, but this jump-to-scene feature, in particular, I really like. It reminds me of the good old days of Scene Selection on DVDs, and I can't wait to check it out.
Amazon explains that this new Alexa+ feature is built on Amazon Bedrock, which powers its AI large language models, and uses "visual understanding and movie captions" processed through Prime Video's existing X-Ray feature to analyze the plot, characters, and actions in a scene to determine where someone might want to jump to in a film on their Fire TV. So far, tens of thousands of scenes have already been indexed by Alexa, and Amazon says it plans to add more movies and scenes soon, as well as expand the feature to TV shows.
I'm usually the type of guy who is quite hesitant about AI, but I can see situations where it's genuinely useful. As someone who loves watching specific scenes from movies repeatedly, this feature is one of them for me. Alexa+ offers many features I'd never use, but this jump-to-scene feature, in particular, I really like. It reminds me of the good old days of Scene Selection on DVDs, and I can't wait to check it out. Amazon says it's rolling out the new feature now to Alexa+ users for Prime Video, but it's only available on Fire TVs.