Amazon Starts Pushing Alexa+ to Prime Members with Echo Devices

Amazon has started pushing its next-gen Alexa+ assistant to Prime members with supported Echo devices. The process appears to be automatic, though Amazon explains in an email to Prime members shared by AFTVNews (via The Verge) that they can still go back to the previous version of Alexa.

“As a Prime member, you get Alexa+ for free and we will update the devices registered to this account to the new, conversational, and more delightful Alexa experience,” Amazon explained in the email. The upgrade takes just a few minutes and won’t require any action from you (…). After your device updates, you can still revert to the original Alexa by saying “Alexa, exit Alexa+.”

Alexa+ currently works across various Echo devices, Fire TV, and Fire tablets, and Amazon also recently made it available on the web. In practice, upgrading to Alexa+ keeps existing settings and preferences, but Amazon acknowledged that Alexa+ can’t do everything that the original Alexa does at the moment.

“During Early Access, you will have voice access to a curated selection of popular features from the original Alexa. The selection will be based on usage to ensure customers’ favorite and most actively used features remain available,” the company said in an FAQ.

According to Amazon, Alexa+ is already available for “tens of millions of customers,” and the next-gen assistant will eventually be free for all Prime members. There were over 200 million Prime members back in 2021, so the potential audience is quite huge. However, Alexa+ is currently only available in the US and Canada, and only in English.