Alexa will start speaking Spanish this year

Amazon Echo (Amazon)

In the list of most spoken languages around the world, English comes in third behind Spanish in second. So it should come as no surprise that Amazon is preparing to launch a Spanish-speaking version of Alexa later this year.

Alexa as a voice assistant is supported by skills, so ahead of the launch Amazon is this week expanding the Alexa Skills Set. Developers can now start building skills specifically for Spanish-speaking customers across all Alexa devices. If you are a participant in the Alexa Preview program it will be possible to start using the Spanish-focused skills as they appear where as everyone else will just have to wait for the official launch. I doubt we'll be kept waiting much longer, especially considering Assistant on Google Home has enjoyed Spanish-language support since June last year.

Amazon will initially limit use of the Spanish-speaking Alexa to the US where Spanish is also the second most spoken language. Based on US Census Bureau data from 2016, the number of people aged five or older speaking English is around 230 million. Spanish comes in second with a still very healthy 40.5 million. For Amazon, that's large enough to support and hopefully entice a few more Echo purchases and Amazon Prime subscriptions.

Although the focus for Amazon will be Spanish-language support on Echo devices, the company's partners will also support the new language. They include Bose, Facebook, and Sony through Alexa Built-in devices, and Honeywell Home, Philips, and TP Link through Works with Alexa devices.

As Spanish is the second most spoken language in the world (behind Chinese), Amazon will easily be able to find new markets to move into once it has worked out the bugs from launching in the US. Then the question becomes, which language will Alexa speak next?

This article originally appeared on PCMag.com.