This year, Queen Elizabeth II's traditional Christmas address is getting more high-tech. In addition to its broadcast on television and radio, the Queen of England will also send her greetings via Amazon's virtual assistant, Alexa. A unique format that will be available beyond the British borders.

"Alexa, play the Queen's Christmas Day message". Using this phrase will allow owners of Amazon Echo connected speakers with Amazon Alexa technology to hear the Queen's wishes this year, The Guardian reported. A first in the history of Queen Elizabeth II's traditional speech, which will even be available outside the United Kingdom.

Amazon outlined that all owners of the brand's connected speakers will be able to access the Queen's wise words as long as they set their device's language to English, whether it is British, American, Australian, Canadian or even Indian.

"After a challenging year, millions of people from across the Commonwealth will be eagerly awaiting Her Majesty the Queen's message on Christmas Day," Eric King, director of Alexa Europe said, according to The Guardian. "By creating this world-first innovation, just as we did in 2012 with the release of the Queen's Christmas speech on Kindle, we hope that even more people will be able to enjoy the uplifting words of Her Majesty."

We will have to wait until 3pm UK time (11pm Malaysia) to discover the Queen's wishes, which will also be broadcast on BBC television as well as on the radio and on YouTube. For those who don't have Amazon's personal assistant, Alexa, but simply the Google Home speaker, all is not lost since by simply saying "OK Google, play BBC Radio 4," at the appropriate hour, they will be able in turn to discover the speech without having to lift a finger. According to the BBC website, the Queen's speech should last six minutes. Since Queen Elizabeth II's first Christmas message in 1952, this exercise has become an annual tradition.

Given the global health crisis, the Queen will celebrate Christmas at Windsor Castle alone with her husband, Prince Philip. This is a first for the couple in more than 30 years, with Christmas coming at a time when the United Kingdom has reinforced its lockdown measures in the face of a mutation of the virus.

 - AFP Relaxnews