Some Skullcandy earbuds will run two voice assistants simultaneously

Some of Skullcandy's earbuds will be able to support two voice assistants at the same time. Last year, the brand debuted its own assistant, Skull-IQ, on Grind Series and Push Active earbuds. Skull-IQ is primarily about controlling audio, including managing your media player, adjusting device settings and answering or dismissing calls. It can launch Spotify via voice command as well. For just about anything else, though, you'll need another assistant. That's where Alexa comes into play.

The dual voice assistant feature was announced during an Alexa developer event. It's not clear when it will be available on Skullcandy's earbuds. Other voice-powered platforms offer multi-assistant experiences with Alexa too, such as Sonos Voice Control and Pioneer's NP1.

Amazon is expanding Alexa in other ways. It just announced developer tools that will enable app and device makers to create Alexa routines and suggest them to users. Amazon sees the move as a step toward realizing its vision of an ambient, more autonomous smart home.