AOL launches updated Alto email app w/ integrated calendars & Amazon Alexa support

AOL, now part of Verizon, is today launching an updated version of its Alto email app that it first launched back in September of last year. Today’s update includes new calendar integration, Amazon Alexa support, and more.

One of the highlight new features arriving in today’s update is full calendar integration in the app’s Dashboard interface:

“Despite all of our smart devices and apps, one of the hardest questions for anyone to answer is still ‘what do I have going on today?,’” said Arlo Rose, General Manager of Alto. “You have personal appointments, business meetings, packages being delivered, emails that need responses, and a flight leaving tonight that you booked months ago. All of this critical information is scattered across multiple personal and business inboxes and calendars, so you’re left hopping around a bunch of apps, trying to piece together your day. Alto puts an end to all of that.”

Calendars events will appear in the Dashboard just like emails and you have full access to browsing your calendars without leaving Alto. Just like with emails, actionable cards that pop up in the Dashboard for calendar events and notifications will let you schedule appointments, reply to invitations, and more.

The Amazon Alexa integration means users will now be able to control calendars and accounts from Exchange to iCould and Yahoo and more  using voice commands with an Alexa device. That’s notable, as the company points out, because it means Alto is currently “the only Alexa calendar integration that syncs with more than just Google Calendar.” Here are a few examples of voice commands users can use with the updated app:

• “What does my day look like?” or “What’s going on today?” – based on your calendar and email, Alto will return a digest of all your appointments, flights, dinner reservations, packages being delivered and more over the next 24 hours.
• “What appointments do I have today?” or “What appointments do I have on Thursday/Next Tuesday/June 5th?”
• “When is my next flight?”
• “When my package is arriving?”
• “Add an event to my calendar”

The updated Alto email app for Android now.