Alexa+ Launches in Early Access in Germany and Austria

Germany is the latest country to welcome Amazon’s Alexa+ in early access. Since March, the next-gen assistant has been launched in the UK, Italy, and Spain, and Amazon has once again worked with designers and computational linguists to ensure that Alexa+ understands local idioms.

“Tailored to the needs of German customers, Alexa+ can have conversations about the topics that matter and connect to the services and devices they use every day. That means Alexa+ uses expressions such as ‘läuft,’ ‘mussja,’ or ‘passtschon,’ advises against eating veal sausage after 12:00 p.m., and also knows what Berliner, Krapfen, and Pfannkuchen have in common,” Amazon said today.

As for local services, the German version of Alexa+ will let users book tables with OpenTable, and integrations with The Fork and Tripadvisor are coming later this year. The next-gen assistant can also connect to Philips, Bosch, and Siemens Home Appliances, and it can also access content from ARD, BILD, Der Spiegel, RTL Radio, and Radio FFH.

Just like in other countries where it’s available in early access, Alexa+ is currently free to use for beta testers, and then it will be priced at €22.99 per month for non-Prime members. Early enthusiasts can get access to Alexa+ by purchasing one of Amazon’s latest Echo smart speakers or smart displays, or they can also sign up on this page to join the waitlist.

Earlier this week, Amazon also announced that Alexa+ was now available on Alexa-enabled Bose speakers. You can visit the Alexa page to opt in today, but the next-gen assistant is also available out of the box on the new Bose Lifestyle Ultra Speaker and Soundbar.