SBUX Starbucks Corporation

By Nathan Olivarez-Giles 

Soon, you will be able to speak to your iPhone about how you want your latte, then find your prepaid drink waiting at a nearby Starbucks. And if you have a go-to drink, you can just ask Alexa to order one up for you.

The voice-interface craze reached a new height when Starbucks Corp. announced two forms of voice ordering on Monday, on iPhones and on the talking speakers featuring Amazon.com Inc.'s Alexa assistant.

The iPhone app -- which began testing and will launch widely through the summer -- doesn't rely on Siri, Apple Inc.'s voice assistant. Instead, it has its own "My Starbucks barista," which listens for orders. You can place an order -- yes, even a wildly complex order -- for any food or drink on Starbucks's menu at any nearby store, and pay ahead of time.

For Alexa-powered speakers, the talent is much more limited (but available already, in the Skills menu in the Alexa app). Once you have linked your Starbucks account and designated a specific order and store made from your mobile app, you can simply say "Alexa, order my Starbucks." If you have a fairly regular beverage routine, this makes sense.

The new features come after Starbucks tempered its revenue forecast by admitting that the popularity of its mobile app has resulted in longer lines at its stores' pickup counters. Those lines have driven away some potential customers, said Starbucks Chief Operating Officer Kevin Johnson, in an interview last week with The Wall Street Journal.

Starbucks declined to say whether voice-controls will increase or decrease lines at the pick up counter. But Starbucks Chief Technology Officer Gerri Martin-Flickinger explained in a statement that gradually rolling out voice ordering could be helpful. "We expect to learn a lot from these experiences and to evolve them over time," Ms. Martin-Flickinger said. Starbucks plans to bring voice ordering to its Android app by the end of the year, she said.

Write to Nathan Olivarez-Giles at Nathan.Olivarez-giles@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 30, 2017 20:30 ET (01:30 GMT)

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