Alice on mos.ru Is Changing Utility Routines
Residents of Moscow can now submit water meter readings using the Alice voice assistant. The feature is available through the city's mos.ru portal, making one of the most routine utility tasks as simple as speaking a command.
The feature for the "Water and Heat Meter Reading Submission" service (Priyom Pokazaniy Priborov Ucheta Vody i Tepla; Water and Heat Meter Reading Submission Service) was introduced in 2025 and has been steadily gaining popularity. Connecting it to Yandex's voice assistant is straightforward. On any device equipped with Alice – whether a smartphone, tablet or smart speaker – users simply say, "Alice, launch the Mosuslugi skill." The assistant then sends a link to one of the user's connected devices, allowing them to link their Yandex ID and Mos ID accounts. The final step is granting Alice access to the user's mos.ru account identifier.
Once setup is complete, users can submit meter readings simply by asking Alice and dictating the numbers displayed on their water meters. The assistant confirms the entered values and automatically sends them to the user's personal account on the mos.ru portal. No separate subscription is required to use the service.
According to the Moscow Department of Information Technology (DIT), about 59% of Moscow residents already use voice assistants for various city services. That makes the addition of voice-based utility meter reporting both timely and convenient for city residents.
From Moscow to the Regions: Where Voice-Based Government Services Are Headed
For now, the new service is available only in Moscow, but its growth potential is significant. In practice, it represents Russia's first integration of a municipal digital platform with a commercial voice ecosystem for an everyday public service. For Russia's IT sector, it demonstrates that voice assistants are becoming a fully fledged channel for accessing government and municipal services.
In Moscow itself, Alice is expected to provide access to additional city services in the near future. Eventually, users are likely to reach most of the functionality currently available through the mos.ru portal and mobile application using voice commands alone. Other Russian regions may also find Moscow's experience valuable, particularly large metropolitan areas with mature digital municipal service ecosystems.
From Website Forms to Voice Commands
Digital services on mos.ru have evolved over more than a decade. By 2023, users had submitted more than 86 million water meter readings through the portal's web interface. In the "My Moscow" (Moya Moskva; My Moscow) mobile app, meter reporting remains one of the platform's most frequently used services.
Meanwhile, DIT has continued expanding the capabilities of services related to utility meters. During 2024 and 2025, Moscow residents gained the ability not only to submit readings but also to compare their own utility consumption with citywide averages and monitor changes in their utility expenses over time. Before 2025, meter readings could be submitted through the web portal, mobile apps and telephone hotlines. Today, the focus is shifting toward a new voice-based interface.
The Future Is Conversational
Using Alice to handle routine household tasks fundamentally changes the way residents manage recurring monthly responsibilities. Instead of filling out online forms or navigating mobile applications, users can simply issue a spoken command to an intelligent assistant.
Over the next several years, the number of these voice-driven scenarios is likely to expand steadily. Voice assistants are expected to support a much broader range of municipal and government services. As these technologies spread across Russia, opportunities to export the underlying digital solutions will also grow. The export potential lies not in a specific platform but in the underlying technologies and data-processing algorithms.
For many Russians who prefer convenient digital tools, the new service means that most everyday utility issues may soon be resolved simply by talking to a smart speaker.
