I have never been quite as excited about a smart home assistant as I am about Amazon’s Alexa+. It takes everything I already like about Alexa, and makes it not only smarter and more capable, but also more conversational, intelligent, and natural to use.
After a demonstration of Alexa+’s talents ahead of a long-time-coming UK launch, it’s shaping up to be the benchmark smart home assistant. Here’s why it impressed me so much.
Goodbye old Alexa
Welcome to the new world
What is Alexa+? It’s old Alexa, but more capable, more personal, smarter, and able to get things done. While Amazon doesn’t use the phrase “agentic,” or even AI when discussing Alexa+, if you’re familiar with both, then you’ve already got a grip on what Alexa+ is all about.
Alexa+ doesn’t sound like old Alexa either. The voice is natural and filled with character and inflection, with an extensive vocabulary, and interestingly for the UK, it knows and understands actual Britishisms. If you want your smart assistant to call you, “mate,” or say it’ll “have a gander” at an item for you, Alexa+ will quickly become a member of the family.
Amazon has removed the typical Alexa-speak too. There’s no more careful phrasing to get things done, and instead you can talk to it naturally. This includes things like, “make it dark” and “make it cooler” when controlling lights and heating systems. Alexa+ connects to your calendar, email account, Amazon account, and many third-party apps for music, radio, and bookings, so you can converse naturally when asking it to complete tasks.
Saying “complete tasks” actually does Alexa+ a disservice. Throughout all the demos, Alexa+ was active, conversational, and helpful, making it feel like a true assistant helping you through your day. It wasn’t completing tasks, it was working with you. It’s an important distinction, and a big part of understanding Alexa+’s appeal. Old Alexa is fine, but calling it smart can sometimes be a bit of a stretch. Alexa+ couldn’t be any smarter even if it turned up in a tuxedo.
What can Alexa+ do?
More than ever before
Alexa+ uses something called Ambient Intelligence, which gives it contextual awareness, a connected memory across devices, an understanding of things you like and don’t like, and for it to be able to do things based on this knowledge.
For example, it will learn your routines and preferences, so you could ask it to order “your usual” on a Friday, and it will not only know what you’re talking about, but also know which restaurant to order from. It can then email a friend telling them about the booking.
Its contextual awareness works everywhere too. Alexa+ knows what’s playing on your TV and can answer questions about actors or music. It will take your dietary requirements into account when asking for recipes, and if a friend is joining you, it’ll also consider theirs. If Alexa+ is connected to Ring security devices, it will check the door to see if a delivery has arrived.
Alexa+ will also use knowledge of your preferences for its tone. If you talk about something you like, it’ll match your excitement. If it’s something that’s not so good, it will act accordingly. There’s personality there, and it really separates Alexa+ from existing Alexa’s simple character.
Just like talking to a friend
Natural language is the key
The sheer breadth of ability in Alexa+ impressed, but it would be nothing if the way you interacted with it was awkward, difficult, or slow. However, in all the demos I saw, Alexa+ was spoken to entirely naturally, and it rarely misunderstood commands. Any hiccups were almost solely due to connection, or a lot of background noise. Even when it didn’t get it quite right, it was still on the right track.
It rarely required explanations either, as it was familiar with first names, had access to a calendar, and could see emails sent to it. When asked to email someone else, it read the draft copy back before sending it, and didn’t need an actual email address, just the person’s name to do it.
I loved how all the friction of old Alexa has been removed. No need for specific phrases, no need to tell it the specific device or family of devices, and no need to explain complex tasks. I saw an entire morning routine — from setting the alarm to turning on specific lights and a coffee machine, syncing with a calendar, and then playing the morning news — set up verbally by using a single, full, run-on sentence. It played it back as a test, and performed it without issue.
There’s so much you can do with Alexa+, I was a little worried about how much effort would be required to set the system up. Speaking to the team, Alexa+ will use information already stored in Alexa during setup and due to its contextual understanding, won’t need telling more than once where a device is in the home. Additionally, you can ask Alexa+ how to set things up, so there’s no need to work it out for yourself.
Take this apparent simplicity, the conversational natural speech, and the way Alexa+ has been adapted to cope with tasks we all do around the home, rather than the more work-orientated functionality of Gemini or Copilot, and I can see myself actually making use of its ability. Being able to picture myself using Alexa+ on a regular basis is a massive part of why I’m excited about it, and it’s evidence Amazon has got the feature set just right.
When can you try Alexa+?
While Alexa+ was announced in the US more than a year ago, Amazon has been hard at work localizing Alexa+ for the UK, making sure it’s familiar with the 40 different dialects used, the most of any English-speaking country. Alexa is very popular in the UK, with 110 billion interactions taking place since 2023, and more than half UK households own an Alexa device.
Alexa+ costs $20 per month in the US and £20 per month in the UK, but it also comes free with an Amazon Prime subscription, making it far better value to use Alexa+ this way. In the UK, early access to Alexa+ will begin on March 18. It works with compatible Alexa devices from Amazon, and will also arrive on Alexa-compatible non-Amazon devices such as Sonos audio products and Fire-equipped smart TVs in the future.
If Alexa+ has been available where you live for a while, but you haven’t tried it yet, make a point to do so. If you’re in the UK, get ready, because Alexa+ is about to change the way you think about Amazon’s smart home assistant.
