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TechCrunch
5 days ago
- TechCrunch
First impressions of Alexa+, Amazon's upgraded, AI-powered digital assistant
I owned a lot of Alexa-powered devices in my former home: There were Amazon Echos in most rooms, including an older Echo Plus in the living room, a smattering of Dots, a Spot in a bedroom, and an Echo Show in the kitchen. A Fire TV ran in the bedroom. And, in a drawer, a rarely used Fire HD tablet sat collecting dust. With the total loss of the home due to a March 2024 house fire, there also came a new opportunity: We could now make a fresh start to create a more modernized smart home after rebuilding our house. But whether Alexa still deserves to be the center of our connected home remains to be seen. To find out whether Alexa is still the best smart assistant for my family, I'm going to test Amazon's AI-powered devices, experiment with AI queries, and write out my thoughts in a multi-part series. With this series, I hope to offer consumers insights as to how well Alexa works in various real-world situations, not company demos. Alexa needed to catch up Image Credits:Amazon Amazon's assistant, which once gave its users Star Trek vibes as they ordered their home computer to close the blinds or turn off the lights or order milk, no longer seemed as revolutionary in the ChatGPT era. Today, people can engage with AI via text and voice chat. Modern AI chatbots and AI-powered services can answer so many more questions, are imaginative, can reason, can create images and art, generate videos, and, with the agentic AI, they can even perform online tasks on your behalf. In February 2025, Amazon announced a complete makeover of its digital voice assistant with the arrival of Alexa+, powered by generative AI. That service began rolling out slowly to customers in March and is now available to 'many millions' of users, Amazon says. The system is also model-agnostic, meaning Alexa+ can use whatever it needs in the moment to answer the question or complete the task. Alexa+ is using models from Anthropic and Amazon Nova, among others. The company teased that this improved Alexa could do more than set timers and alarms, control smart home devices, and answer questions. It leverages generative AI to make sense of information stored in Amazon users' accounts, understand their schedules, and their preferences. It can remember things, process files, and summarize a Ring camera's footage. Image Credits:Amazon Notably, Amazon says it's been working with partners to allow it to take actions for people, like booking dinner reservations or Uber rides, or buying concert tickets. Integrations with Amazon's own grocery service could also have it make shopping lists by speaking to it, and then have those products delivered. Essentially, it's aiming to bring agentic AI into the home. But before we can get to that, let's see how Alexa+ handles the basics. In the first part of this series, I'm going to set up Alexa+, use the app, and ask the assistant some questions that only the new Alexa+ can do. Later, I'll test the agentic AI features and smart home integrations. Setting up Alexa+ on an Echo Spot Device: Echo Spot Default music service: Spotify (Premium) Before moving to my new home, I put Alexa+ to the test on a brand-new Echo Spot after being accepted into the beta. Since I couldn't yet hook up smart home devices in the Airbnb that's served as a temporary residence for over a year, I initially tried to test the device's AI in other ways. Mainly, I wanted to know if Alexa+ was really all that smart and useful, and if she could do all the things Amazon promised. Image Credits:TechCrunch Setting up the Spot was easier than it was with past devices, as now you only needed to scan a QR code to get the process started in the Alexa app. The app connected automatically to the home's Wi-Fi; no more weird toggling between the device's network and your own Wi-Fi. On the next screen, I accepted the invite to upgrade to the new Alexa+ for free, knowing that it's still possible to downgrade to the old Alexa service at any time, if things go wrong. Onboarding included a short video that explained that Alexa would learn more as I use it, and instructed me on how to talk to Alexa. I then connected my Google account, giving Alexa access to my inbox and calendar. I ended up on a blank page after doing so, oddly, but after closing the window, the screen informed me that my 'Account Linked.' (Disclosure: I am running the iOS 26 developer beta on my iPhone, so maybe that's the problem?) Image Credits:Alexa app screenshot On the following screen, I picked the services I wanted to use with Alexa+, which today include OpenTable, Ticketmaster, Uber, and Thumbtack. I checked all the boxes, then moved to the following screen to grant the necessary permissions, one by one. While it's a bit tedious to do so — and something that could be even more tedious in time as more services are added — I did appreciate that it felt like I was in control of the data sharing and could see exactly what each service was requesting before agreeing. Image Credits:Alexa app screenshot The following screen confirmed that Fodor's travel planning service was already integrated with Alexa+, but it didn't require permissions. It also noted that services like Uber Eats, Grubhub, and Vagaro would be added later on. Image Credits:Alexa app screenshot The Alexa app itself is still sorely lacking in user interface design. Despite many updates, the app still feels somehow both plain and too busy. It lacks color and traditional mobile app navigation patterns, and it tries to cram too many examples of 'things to do' on its home screen. Meanwhile, trying to locate how to do the necessary first steps — like linking my preferred music service — is buried in the interface. Nope, you don't tap on your profile icon, Settings, and then scroll down to 'Preferred service providers.' For some reason, that's where you set your preferred News, Calendar, and Email providers, but not your preferred Music service. Image Credits:Alexa app screenshot Instead, you tap on the hamburger menu at the bottom of the screen. You then tap on the 'Music & More' screen. (What's the More? Podcasts? Audiobooks?) Image Credits:Alexa app screenshot I set Spotify as my default music service, the default choice for artists and genre stations, and the default for podcasts. There was no option to set my default audiobooks service. In this section, there was also a list of services I had previously linked with Alexa. Here, Amazon's Audible — which I would prefer to set as the default for audiobooks — was listed alongside other streamers, like Pandora, Amazon Music, Apple Music, and others. But when I tapped on Audible, I simply got an error that says 'You've reached the end of Alexa's knowledge. Just kidding. This skill no longer exists. Click here to go back.' Uh, OK. I mean, would it not make sense to just remove the broken thing that no longer exists? In any event, I'm here to try Alexa+, not yell at a poorly designed mobile app. I'll figure out audiobooks later, I guess. Note for this series: In these tests, I may have shared personal information with Alexa that I will not be publishing. In those cases, I will put a description of the item — like 'child's school' — in [brackets]. I have also slightly changed some of the dates, times, and numbers to further obscure any personal information that could be used to develop an understanding of my accounts, meetings, or household routines. Can Alexa+ manage the family's schedule? Busy households, especially ones with kids, often use a family calendar to track activities, doctor's appointments, errands, meetings, classes, and more. Our family calendar is maintained in Google Calendar, accessed on our phones through the native Google Calendar app, and on Mac desktops via the calendar app Fantastical. Amazon suggests that Alexa+ can help summarize your day, add new events to your calendar, identify conflicts, and more. In practice, Alexa was fairly adept at letting me inquire about the schedule and various events, but it interrupted me when I was asking to add a new meeting to my calendar. I said, 'Can you add a meeting to my calendar on August 6 at 2 p.m. with [entity] about …' Here she cut me off to ask, 'What would you like to title this meeting?' Annoying, but not end-of-the-world terrible, I suppose. I was more easily able to ask things like 'What's on my calendar today?' and follow up to ask further questions — like if there were any meetings later in the week or to repeat one of the appointments. I didn't have to say 'Alexa' again to continue the conversation. It felt more natural, but there's a very slight lag with her responses at times. (As an aside, when I went to find the history of my voice chats for writing this post, I asked Alexa where they could be found. She told me to look in the app's Settings under the More menu, then look for Alexa Privacy or Review Voice History. She's wrong. Neither option was there. I did, however, find my history from the 'Recent Chats' link on the app's home screen. Alexa, c'mon! Know thyself.) Alexa, remember this Another thing Alexa+ is supposed to be able to do is store information on your behalf. To test this out, I asked her to remember my frequent flier number. This interaction went poorly. Me: Alexa, can you remember my Delta SkyMiles number? Alexa: Sure, I'd be happy to remember your Delta SkyMiles number for you. What's the number? Me: *opens mouth to speak* Alexa: I've added that to Remember This in the Alexa privacy section of the app. Also, keep in my that anyone who has access to any of your Alexa devices can use their voice to hear its contents. Um, what? I tried again. Me: Alexa, can you remember my SkyMiles number? Alexa: Certainly! I'd be happy to remember your SkyMiles number for you. What's the number? OK, saved it. She didn't even take a breath! Curious, I asked her what she thinks the number is. She responded, 'I don't have your SkyMiles number saved yet. Would you like to tell me your number now?' Me: Yes. Alexa: OK, go ahead and tell me your Delta SkyMiles number. Me: [says the 8-digit number] Alexa: OK, saved it. Me: What's my SkyMiles number? Alexa: 'Six hundred fifty-two million, four hundred eighty-six thousand…' (Note: I changed the number for the purpose of this post, but yes, Alexa read it out like a long numeral instead of just saying 6-5-2-4-8-6, etc. Not helpful!) Alexa, read my email Alexa+ can now supposedly understand documents you upload in the Alexa app or forward to her at alexa@ using the email address associated with your Amazon account. To try this, I forwarded an email from my child's school. These come frequently and have a lot of useful information in them, but are often lost in the inbox. Perhaps if Alexa can handle this task, a new Gmail forwarding filter is in order? Me: Alexa, summarize the recent email from school. Alexa: The recent email from [my child's school] is a welcome-back letter for the 2025-2026 school year. It announces an 'Early Start Day' orientation on August [date] for new students, with an information session for new parents that evening. Regular classes begin on August [date]. Me: Was there any information specifically for [grade] in that email? Alexa: I don't see any information specifically for [grade] in that email. The letter mainly covers general school information, orientation dates, and important deadlines for all students. Alexa app Screenshot Great, that worked, it seems. But here's where things got a little trickier. Me: Are there any important dates I should add to my calendar? Alexa: *repeats the important dates from above* Me: Can you add those to my calendar for me? Alexa: (Who must have misheard me?) Checking your calendar. Sarah, your calendar is looking busy. You have [activity] ongoing until August 16th, you have [activity]. On Thursday, … Me: (interrupting) I was asking if you could add the dates in the email to my calendar for me? Alexa: Certainly, I'll do that. (Pause) I've added the following dates to your calendar: Course Correction Request Period from August [date] through August [date] New Student Orientation Early Start Day on August [date, time] First Day of School on August [date] Is there anything else you'd like me to add? While this process seems efficient and is certainly helpful in a pinch, you'll notice I left it up to Alexa to determine which dates were 'important.' As a result, she picked the three dates closest to today. The email itself, however, contained a list of 12 important school dates, including things like Meet the Teacher Night, Open House, Midyear Graduation, and more. All of them were formatted the same way in the email under the heading 'Important Dates.' Had I only relied on Alexa and had not read the email itself, I would have missed these. Oh, dear. Alexa, help me save money Another Alexa+ promise is that she can help you track prices on Amazon so you can save money when things go on sale. Alright, I'll bite! I like online shopping. I decided to try tracking a couple of things, including one skin care item and a Coach handbag. These are things I definitely don't need, but want — the kinds of things where a discount could prompt a purchase. screenshot Me: Alexa, I want to know when the Glow Recipe Plum Plumping and Hydrating Hyaluronic Acid Skin Care Serum goes on sale. Alexa: Just a second … I've set up a deal tracker for the Glow Recipe Plum Plumping Serum. I'll notify you when it goes on sale. Me: How much is it right now? Alexa: *silence* Me: Did you hear me? Alexa: Checking on that. Yes, I heard you. I've already set up a deal tracker for the Glow Recipe Plum Plumping Serum. You'll get a notification when it goes on sale. Me: How much is it now? Alexa: *More silence.* OK, I guess we'll wait on that one. Next up, I tried the handbag. Me: Alexa, I want to know when the Coach Swinger handbag goes on sale. Alexa: Certainly, I'll check that. Got it! I set up a deal tracker for the Coach Swinger handbag. I'll let you know when it goes on sale. Me: Is it out of stock in blue? Alexa: *Silence* Me: Is the Coach handbag I just asked you about out of stock in blue? (Note: it was, per Amazon's website at the time of the request.) Alexa: Let me check that for you. (Long pause) I found the Coach Swinger handbag, but it's currently available in black. The blue option isn't showing up in the search results, which might mean it's out of stock. Would you like more details about the available options? Me: No. The Coach Swinger handbag in blue does show up on the product page on the web, for what it's worth; it's listed as 'temporarily out of stock.' The bag is also available in both black and red, but Alexa only mentioned the black option for some reason. Not super helpful. And we'll have to wait to see if it ever goes on sale. Off to a slow start With these first introductory tests, Alexa+ seems very much like a beta product. She's trying but is prone to making mistakes and not being thorough. Sometimes, she doesn't even seem to hear me or doesn't know what to do. Given that many of these are out-of-the-box features that don't require integrations, you have to wonder how well Alexa+ will do at navigating the web and taking action for you. In the next installment of this series, I'll continue testing the AI and will try some of the agentic AI features with Alexa+.
WIRED
29-07-2025
- WIRED
I Lived With Alexa+ for a Week. Here's How It Went
I tried the new Alexa+ across three Echo Show devices in my house. The experience was pretty solid for early-access software. Courtesy of Julian Cassady Photography, Alive Coverage I've had Alexa, Amazon's cloud-based voice service, in my house for the better part of a decade. I had the original rounded tower in my first post-grad apartment, and now the second-generation Echo Spot (7/10, WIRED Review) has a permanent place in my office as I cycle among different smart speakers while testing for my guide to the Best Smart Speakers. For years, Alexa's been a constant for controlling my many smart lights and allowing me to jam to my playlist of choice. There was always a lot Alexa could do if you had the patience to install the skills, invest in smart-home gear, and perfect the best way to ask Alexa your question. But the newest iteration feels like a smart speaker you can actually have a conversation with. That version of Alexa is Alexa+, announced back in February, and it is currently available for early access. Right now you join a waitlist and wait to get randomly selected, and Amazon doesn't have a set timeline for when everyone will get access. It's free right now for Alexa users, and once it's public and in its final version, Alexa+ will cost $20 a month (or be free for Prime subscribers). While I can do many of the things I tried with Alexa+ with the original Alexa, it's certainly been much easier (and, dare I say, a little fun) to talk to the newest version. It's an improved audio and visual experience, and—at least, to my ears—the new, more natural-sounding voice is a relief after years of Alexa's robotic tones. A Fresh Face Alexa+ feels akin to the AI chatbots of the world, which isn't a huge surprise given that it was built with generative AI. Compared with the previous iteration, this feels much more modern, though not a new take by any means when we've had ChatGPT and its competitors in our lives for years now. Still, it's refreshing to see on a smart speaker, especially since these devices have felt a little left behind in the current AI landscape. Alexa+ is currently available only on Echo Show smart displays, not on non-screen Echo speakers, and it's clear why: You'd miss out entirely on the visual component. As with a chatbot, your conversation will appear on the Echo Show screen with little talk bubbles, like it's a text thread rather than a voice conversation. It'll appear the same way in the Alexa app, where you can type back and forth with Alexa. Onscreen text bubbles aren't the only change. The homepages of both the Echo Show 15 and Echo Show 8 are streamlined with a more minimalist aesthetic, and they have some new art icons, primarily blue single-line art that will also sometimes appear while you speak to Alexa+. So far the menus still look the same, and you'll still have the library of widgets to choose from. My devices retained all the onscreen widgets I'd previously selected. That blue-line design element can be spotted while speaking to Alexa+, similar to the blue bar that would appear on the top of the screen when you spoke to the original Alexa. This blue line often starts out looking similar, but it will move around and even make shapes to correlate with the topic: clouds for a weather question, a calendar for a date question. You'll also be able to skip saying 'Alexa' as a wake word if you see the blue light on, indicating that Alexa+ is listening. Chat Better Living with Alexa+ has made one thing clear, though: She's a much better conversationalist than either her past self or other smart assistants. Part of that is the new, more conversational voice. Alexa+ has eight adult voices available, including the original voice Alexa is known for. I went with the default new feminine voice, though there are four feminine and four masculine voices to choose from. (There are also four animal voices you can use if you have Amazon Kids+.) Alexa+ manages to answer quickly, even when listening to a more complex question and giving a more complex answer. She usually manages to answer all of my questions, too—no more of the 'Hmm, I'm not quite sure how to answer that' that I've heard one time too many from the original Alexa. She used to give me that answer to even seemingly simple questions—outfit suggestions on a cloudy day at the zoo, for example, or where we can book a table for dinner, or if Kesha has tickets on sale for her tour. Alexa+ can accurately tell me calendar details, and it controls my smart home with a much better speed than the Google speakers that have been controlling my house for the past year. I also like that I can access the conversations I've had in the past through the Alexa app. They're grouped by the initial question I asked, making it easy to skim through conversations and see what Alexa's answers were. Alexa+ will also use the camera to recognize you and other members of the house if you set up their profiles as well. My Echo Shows will display 'Good Morning, Nena' when I approach them and suggest things in the For You section on the homepage that it remembers I like to do, such as aerial arts and going to the zoo. Alexa+ has also done a good job ignoring when I casually mention her name in conversation, and while my initial thought was this was due to me not looking at the camera, my further testing found she was pretty good at ignoring her name if it was mid-sentence, even if I looked right at her. Alexa+ is not perfect yet, nor is she complete. I encountered some hiccups—for example, when asked about the closest donut shops, she provided me with shops in the city I live in, even though I was currently in a different city. However, these issues were easily remedied by providing her with more context. Her funniest answer was when I asked for the weather at the zoo, trying to see if she'd know to reference the San Diego Zoo, and instead she gave me the weather for Zaō, Japan. But the next time I asked about the weather in San Diego proper, and then what to wear to the zoo, she correctly deduced which zoo I was talking about. New Digs While I can make all the original asks I usually would with Alexa+, there are plenty of new things to try. There are integrations with OpenTable and Ticketmaster to find dinner reservations and tickets to shows with Alexa+. The OpenTable tool definitely had some favorites; separate requests for dinner and for high-tea reservations searched the same three restaurants in a row, most of which did not have high tea. But when I asked Alexa+ to find high-tea spots on her own (which uses a Yelp-based search instead of OpenTable), she recommended actual high-tea shops to me and was able to make a reservation for the spot of my choosing. It can't book reservations that require a credit card right now, but Amazon is hoping to solve that soon. If I wanted tickets to a concert instead of dinner, those were also easy to find for the Beaches show in San Diego this October. I've also got Alexa+ set to watch for if Kesha adds tour dates in California. I was also able to ask Alexa+ to plan me a road trip from where I live in Southern California to Zion National Park, which is a trip I've taken before. She recommended the easiest route: Head straight to Vegas, visit Valley of Fire State Park, and then reach Zion from there. She was correct; it's actually the exact route I took previously. You can also mention to Alexa+ a couple of ingredients in your fridge or pantry and ask her to make recipe recommendations. I asked her on a day where I had very little going on in my fridge and freezer—fish nuggets and some coleslaw—and asked for recipe ideas. These ingredients were bought with the intention of making fish tacos, and Alexa+ sensed that was the best route to go as well and suggested eight variations of a fish taco recipe, plus a potsticker stir-fry dish that used both ingredients. It's a fun tool to use, and it works pretty quickly. Alexa+ did like to ask if I'd like to look for recipes with similar ingredients each time I did a recipe request, which I always said yes to. Alexa's also always been synonymous with smart-home control. Alexa+ has been speedy with controlling my smart lights, and using it in tandem with a Ring doorbell means you can ask questions about when you got deliveries or when someone was spotted leaving the house. As always, the biggest roadblock for getting the most out of the smart-home features is owning other smart-home gear. Ring doorbell has the biggest range of things you can ask, since there are a lot of interesting things the video feed can spot and show you, like when packages arrived and when someone was seen at your front door. You can see that from the smart home dashboard as well, where it'll track events, packages, and more on the bottom of the overview. Users were also always able to shop through Alexa, and that's still an option on Alexa+. I prefer the visual experience a little better, as it's quick and easy to search for items I want to shop for. However, it didn't feel hugely different if I was already doing something similar on an Alexa device. Just the Beginning This is just an early look at Alexa+, and the service still has some limitations and features to come, so I can't tell you yet if it's worth that $20. In the future, you'll be able to request to start at a certain movie scene through Fire TV, order groceries and Grubhub deliveries, and schedule more than just dinner reservations. But even with the current experience, I was glad to interact with an Alexa that felt like she was made for now. It has come with some other costs, though. You can no longer opt for local processing of your Alexa requests, whether that's with Alexa+ or without it. That cloud-only processing is what makes features like the conversation in the app history possible, but it also raises major privacy concerns. If it's something you're comfortable with, Alexa+ has been a fun upgrade. If it's not, you'll need to rid your house of any Alexa-enabled devices to avoid it.
