The decision
A bold and intelligent development, Amazon Alexa+ is a necessary update. Powered by GenAI, Alexa+ is built and optimized for natural language understanding. Able to search for answers, the system cannot answer or understand in several situations, making it useful in everyday life. Its local business search is terrible, and the lack of support for job calendars is frustrating, but things will get better. Meanwhile, smart home control, the ability to learn more about you, and tools to distribute information from emails, PDFs and images make this the best smart home assistant.
Product name: Introduction
Somewhere along the line Alexa lost a bit of its magic. When it was launched, ten years ago, there was nothing like it. It was as if the future had finally arrived. But, over time, limitations appeared: Alexa could not do everything, and often needed commands to be placed in a certain way (Alexa speaks, as it is known).
Now, there’s a new version, the GenAI-powered Alexa+, finally available in the UK. A conversational upgrade, Alexa+ is back to using voice, asking questions, controlling my smart home and more. It’s not perfect, but as home assistants go, it goes a long way.
Availability
Alexa+ is currently available in Early Access, which means it’s free, but you also need an invite to use it. The fastest way to get in is to buy a new smart speaker, like the Echo Show 11, although you can register your interest online and wait for an invite.
Finally, Alexa + will be priced at: £19.99/$19.99 per month, or get it bundled with Amazon Prime.
Discussions and general information
Before I get into it, it’s important to note that Alexa+ is different depending on what part of the world you live in. Rather than a typical voice assistant, Alexa+ is designed to understand regional differences and respond accordingly. Here in the UK, that meant Amazon had to do a lot of work, teaching Alexa+ how to understand and respond to many regional words.
What remains the same in all countries is that Alexa+ no longer requires Alexa Speak to work. Instead, you speak normally, as if you were talking to a person (or typing in ChatGPT).
So, you can still say, “Alexa, weather” to get a basic overview of the weather in your area, but you can also ask, “When’s a good day to have a BBQ?” or “Will the weather be good this week?”
Alexa+ understands what you’re asking and responds accordingly, giving you meaningful answers to your questions. There are a few times when Alexa+ will say it can’t understand, but if it does, you can simply rephrase your question; and, it’s like talking to a real person.
More importantly, Alexa+ gets context, both in the short and long term. For example, you can follow up with a question from your last request at any time, and Alexa+ will answer without you having to repeat everything.
But, over time, Alexa+ can build knowledge about you, your family and friends. It does this both directly (when you first register Alexa+ you have to choose some preferences, like favorite music), and learn based on what you ask. Plus, you can also directly tell Alexa+ information, like “Alexa, I’m a Spurs fan” or “Alexa, my wife is a vegetarian”.
This information is used by Alexa+, and it adjusts its responses. Following the vegetarian experience, when I ask Alexa+ to recommend chicken dishes for me and my wife, it comes back and reminds me that my wife does not eat chicken and suggests vegetarian recipes instead.
Attempting the same thing for a Gemini at home results in a complete failure, as well as a bunch of chicken dinner recipes.
Alexa+ can also change its emotional response. Asking about football results, Alexa + had to use a sad tone for Spurs, although the recent win was reported in a happy and joyful tone.
Alexa+ is also very good at retrieving information from the Internet, answering almost any question you can think of. For example, it can tell me what the song is at the end of Fight Club (The Pixies, Where Is My Mind?); it can tell me whether or not a recent tubal strike has been going on, and when it will start and stop; and can you tell me who won best score at the Oscar in 2003 (Elliot Goldenthal for Frida).
It’s amazing, and if you want to know something quickly, Alexa+ is usually the better route to go down, rather than pulling out the phone and getting caught in the scroll of dooms.
While Alexa+ is good at retrieving information, its default responses tend to be annoying. The voice assistant is programmed to chirp less, talk more and be overly friendly.
Inquiring about the beating of the tubes, the first response was very happy. Speaking of football, Alexa+ kept calling me “mate” a lot. In general, Alexa + will talk more, rather than giving simple answers.
However, Alexa + is designed for learning. Tell it you don’t like being called a partner or that you prefer short answers, and Alexa+ will remember. The more you use it, the better it suits you.
Well, mainly. There are still things that could go wrong, but things are getting better. On my Echo Show, when I ask about the Spurs, Alexa + responds with information about the soccer team, but shows shortcuts for more information about the San Antonio Spurs, which wasn’t very helpful. However, this has been fixed, and I am getting the correct information.
Local business search
Another area that Alexa+ really needs to improve is its local business knowledge. This is horribly outdated and unhelpful. I asked for a nearby French restaurant and got a recommendation for one that closed in 2023, while a better option was not listed at all.
There may also be discrepancies between what Alexa+ says and what information it shows on the Echo Show. For that French restaurant, Alexa+ told me it was open between 5pm and 9pm, but a screenshot from TripAdvisor showed the restaurant was closed (it said today, but forever).
Restaurants on OpenTable can be booked using voice, with a simple command: date, time and number of people; or you can even say find a slot in your diary on a certain day, and Alexa + will do the hard work of finding and booking it for you.
It’s cool when it works, but you’re limited to restaurants that don’t require card information (Amazon works on this).
If Amazon could spend some money to update its live local listings, it would be even better.
Documents, calendars and more
Alexa+ can be linked to your email and calendars, helping you manage them. As long as you don’t pay to have a Google or Microsoft email account, as these accounts are not currently supported, it’s less of a concern. Currently, then, free accounts are supported.
As noted above, calendar information can be used for things like finding a time to go to a restaurant. But, you can also get Alexa+ to add appointments. Ask when your team is playing next, for example, and Alexa+ can add a calendar reminder.
Things get really smart when you add Alexa+’s ability to understand structured data from documents. You can send Alexa+ an email, use the app to upload documents or take a picture of something.
I sent a PDF of my daughter’s DofE information, and a few minutes later the app was confusing me with to-do list items (things to get and bring), as well as calendar entries for various training and travel dates.
I used my camera to take a picture of the awesomely designed school term days page, and Alexa+ pulled up the school holidays and deadlines in a flash. That can be a real time saver.
Alexa+ will also save and recall texts for you. I posted a PDF instruction manual for my dishwasher, then asked Alexa+ about it, like asking what an error code means or where the salt goes. The same goes for game commands, too.
A smart home
Alexa+ can do everything the old app can do and more. Natural language makes a big difference.
If you’re cold, rather than asking for the current temperature in your room and then asking to set the temperature to something higher than this, I can just say, “Alexa, it’s cold in here” and the heating turns up.
Routes can be easily made, too. They can be permanent, say to turn the light on and off at a certain time every day, or it can be temporary: “Alexa, turn off the heat in 10 minutes.”
You can also follow instructions for one-time use, such as turning on the lights, waiting 10 minutes, and then turning them off again. However, in reality these can go wrong.
“Alexa, set Dave’s heater to 25° and turn it off after five minutes,” I said. Alexa created a routine similar to my description, but the trigger was the full, long phrase I used. That’s not what I wanted.
But, Alexa+ is learning and improving all the time, and it usually does what I want 90%+ of the time, even with complex commands.
Final thoughts
Alexa+ is a big step up from the regular Alexa. It’s easy to talk to and intelligent, its responses (when adjusted to suit preferences) feel natural, and its ability to learn and understand a wide range of situations means it gets better the more you use it. Local search is currently not good, and the lack of support for work calendars is annoying, but this will improve, and for now the excellent smart home support and the ability to distribute information from PDFs, images and emails make this the best smart assistant.
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Intelligent assistants often live within an ecosystem, or a range of products – so-called – that all work in harmony. And they are designed to offer a range of different options. Therefore, it is impossible to use a smart assistant for many weeks and bring a decision.
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