Fears of Amazon price hike and MORE ads as company boss teases worrying change for shoppers
The company's new AI supercharged Alexa is still rolling out, which users can pay for if they don't have a Prime membership.
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Alexa is the world's most famous digital voice assistant
Credit: Getty
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Alexa+ is still rolling out in the US with no update on when it'll land in the UK
Credit: Getty
Alexa+ is optional and costs $19.99 (£15) per month without a Prime subscription.
But there could be even more ads on the way as Amazon looks to make its devices profitable.
Currently, users already see some limited ads, such as on Echo Show displays.
There's also the "By the way" feature that makes subtle suggestions to you based off what you ask Alexa.
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Amazon chief Andy Jassy has now hinted other ads are in the works.
"There will be opportunities, as people are engaging in more multiturn conversations [with Alexa Plus], to have advertising play a role to help people find discovery, and also as a lever to drive revenue," he said during a recent investor call.
TechCrunch has speculated that this could mean paying extra for an ad-free tier of Alexa.
But users have raged over the idea and mocked possible scenarios.
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"When you tell it to turn on your lights, it'll turn on the lights and then give a 15 second advertisement for other lights you could buy on Amazon.com," one joked on Reddit.
"All I want it to do is provide random facts when I ask about them, play the music I ask it to and adjust the household settings I tell it to," another person commented.
"I don't want suggestions and I sure as s*** won't be listening to ads."
A third added: "They are a glorified Bluetooth speaker.
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"I will throw mine in the trash before I suffer through a single ad."
And a fourth said: "I already stopped watching prime because of the ads. I'm fine dropping Alexa too."
There's still no word on when Alexa+ will be rolled out to other countries including the UK.
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