It doesn't "directly" connect - it changes things on iCloud - it just doesn't work well. It takes more than a few seconds for it to add things to reminders. It has to verify your voice to add things to reminders - god forbid if you are sharing a shopping list with another person in your household. That nearly doubles the time it takes to add something to a shopping list. With Alexa, adding things to a shopping list is instant, it doesn't verify if you are authorized to add things to the shopping list, Alexa just adds them.