Amazon’s Alexa+ Will Release in March and Cost $20 Monthly for Non-Prime Members

Alexa+ will be released by Amazon sometime in March. The upgraded Alexa will cost $19.99 a month, but Amazon Prime members get it for free.

Alexa+ will have the capability to send texts, provide dinner recipes, and send invitations. Reportedly, the upgraded voice assistant can extract data from a variety of sources like emails and calendars.  The new Alexa will work with other apps, such as Uber, to arrange a ride or create travel plans using a site like Tripadvisor.

In a demonstration earlier this week, Alexa+ generated a grocery list and ordered the items from various stores, including Amazon-owned Whole Foods. Other demos showed the voice assistant making fitness appointments through wellness app Vagaro and even automatically ordering products from Amazon the moment they went on sale.

Alexa+ will pick up on a user’s tone of voice and give suggestions accordingly, such as reassuring someone who may sound nervous. Also gone will be Alexa’s current requirement for “precise language.”

“Alexa+ learns from you and the more you use it, the more personalized it gets — understanding everything from your favorite entertainment to your family’s dietary preferences, allergies, and weekly traditions,” Amazon said.

Other capabilities revealed by Amazon were the assistant’s ability to examine and answer questions about footage captured by Ring cameras, analyze and understand PDF documents, and read handwritten notes. Alexa+ can even jump to a specific scene in a movie viewed on Prime Video and generate unique music using the Suno app.

Alexa+ Coming to a Device Near You

Amazon’s hardware chief, Panos Panay, explained the ultimate vision for Alexa+ at the demonstration event. He noted that the typical AI chatbot can be intimidating, but Alexa+ will eliminate that factor. Amazon’s voice assistant makes it easy for users to “actually take action.”

Amazon has teased an upgraded version of Alexa for quite a while. Yet, glitches, like Alexa taking a frustratingly long time to answer questions, have kept the tech company from a full rollout of the technology.

Whether the upgraded voice assistant performs effectively in real households is yet to be seen. While promising in this week’s demos, Amazon did not let event attendees personally use the technology to any extent and the demonstrations were purportedly well-choreographed.

Amazon has invested billions of dollars in Alexa over the years with little return. With Alexa+ now seemingly ready, however, the voice assistant may become relevant again. Alexa is already installed on over 600 million devices, and it is likely users will accept the upgrade without much resistance.