Those planning to tune into the Queen's Christmas Day message will be able to do so from their Amazon Alexa smart speakers for the first time this year. 

While smart speaker owners have technically been able to listen to Her Majesty's annual message through their devices before, simply by asking Alexa (or, indeed, Google Assistant) to switch to a radio station following the event, things have been simplified for 2020.

Users can now simply say, "Alexa, play the Queen's Christmas Day message".

Handily, for those listening around the world, the feature won't be reserved for devices in the UK, either. As long as your Alexa language is set to English - so, either the British, American, Australian, Indian or Canadian versions - you'll be able to listen in.

The Crown isn't exactly new to the technology, but being late to the party isn't exactly surprising, either, since there's no need for it to take a gamble. With more and more devices now filling our homes, it gives those of us not near a TV (or unable to find the remote under the mountain of chocolate boxes) and another way to experience the message. 

As we say, those with a Google Assistant-powered speaker will simply have to ask the assistant to play BBC Radio 4 in time with the 15:00 GMT Christmas message.