Alexa+ logo in white on blue and black background.

Amazon’s Alexa will enter a new age in the form of Alexa+, a smarter and more conversational voice assistant. The company unveiled this new version at its Devices 2025 event in New York, showcasing various instances and scenarios in which the virtual assistant speaks in more natural tones and controls smart devices through different means.

In essence, Alexa+ finds a new voice and expanded purpose, while making it easier and more efficient for everyone to use. Rather than basic tasks, the next-gen voice assistant will act like a more elaborate concierge helping you find what you’re looking for, even when you don’t know exactly what that is.

The ‘brains’ behind Alexa+

Amazon built Alexa+ on large language models (LLMs) from its Bedrock platform. This gives it more generative AI capabilities that should allow it to increasingly access and control tens of thousands of services and devices.

To start, you will only need to say “Alexa” once to kick off a conversation with the assistant. That means fewer specific phrases or particular words to get it to respond to what you need. It will also remember previous parts of the conversation as well, improving on how to do multiple things in one go. For instance, Alexa+ can control compatible smart home products, while also setting up appointments or making reservations—in one conversation.

Alexa+ telling a story to a young girl through Echo Show.

It can remind you about an upcoming concert and buy tickets when they go on sale on Ticketmaster, as well as notify you when a new album is about to drop on streaming services like Amazon Music, Spotify, Apple Music, and iHeartRadio. If you order food from Uber Eats, it can tie that to a Ring doorbell camera to let you know when the courier is about to drop it off.

What’s also interesting is how the assistant can make sense of tonality and vernacular to better interpret what you’re stating or asking. It won’t be necessary to ask a question a certain way. For example, saying, “What time is (restaurant) open till next Friday,” and once you hear the response say, “Make a reservation for 8pm and text (contacts) about it.”

Finding the right place

This broader understanding also lends itself to both the internet and streaming content as well. Alexa+ will more likely know what you mean when you hum a song’s melody to learn what it is, or even what song played in a certain movie. On Prime Video, you can tell it to skip to a specific scene in a show or movie with a general detail. That could be one where two particular actors perform together or something like an action set piece.

Alexa booking an Uber ride via Alexa+.

If you’re trying to remember a landmark in a certain city or town, you can describe it in somewhat abstract terms where it may be able to identify it for you. It’s also possible to ask for the latest news on a specific subject or person, though information will only come from the various news sources Amazon has cut deals with.

Indeed, the best integrations will be with those brands or companies Amazon is partnering with. Hence, it will be much easier to set up a ride with Uber than it would with Lyft, for instance. Same with Ticketmaster compared to something like GameTime.

Getting personal

One of Amazon’s goals is to turn Alexa+ into more of an AI agent for you. It sees the potential in having the assistant scrape the internet to find the right warranty information and repair options for a kitchen appliance, as one example. It also learns the makeup and layout of your smart home, so when you say, “play my (playlist) everywhere but not in the bedroom,” it will know what you mean. The same goes for smart lights or security cameras.

Smart home dashboard on an Echo Show with Alexa+.

Over time, it eventually learns what you’ve bought, what you’ve listened to, the videos you’ve watched, the address you ship things to, and how you like to pay. It can store and remember family recipes and note the dietary restrictions or preferences for each member of the household. This way, it can suggest how to amend or revise a recipe to accommodate someone who may be vegetarian, suffer from acid reflux or want to go gluten-free. It can do the same when recommending restaurants too.

Amazon also says it can act dynamically—when you want it to. If it knows your general commute, it may warn you to take off earlier in case of weather or traffic issues. If you’re eating while watching a show on a phone and then want to move it to your TV, you can just say so. Again, though, it works best with devices that Alexa can control. That number currently sits at over 600 million devices based on Amazon’s own figures.

New app and website

Amazon Alexa+ on a laptop web browser.

A new Alexa app is coming to iOS and Android that will enable Alexa+ to better integrate mobile devices. Part of the idea is to start a conversation on one device and continue elsewhere, like starting from an Echo device at home and continuing in the car. A new Alexa.com website will also be in the mix, enabling computers to get involved as well. That will extend to documents, photos, emails and messages, where the assistant can summarize anything or act on information lying within.

Rollout and availability

The new Alexa+ will first launch in the United States and cost $19.99 per month, though will be free for Amazon Prime members. It will comes in “waves” for the next few months with the Echo 8, 10, 15 and 21 being the first devices to utilize it. Amazon hasn’t clarified when it will release it to other countries including Canada but sometime in 2025 appears likely.

Check out all the devices compatible with Alexa that are available now.

Ted Kritsonis
Editor Cellular/Mobile Technology
I’m a fortunate man in being able to do the fun job of following and reporting on one of the most exciting industries in the world today. In my time covering consumer tech, I’ve written for a number of publications, including the Globe and Mail, Yahoo! Canada, CBC.ca, Canoe, Digital Trends, MobileSyrup, G4 Tech, PC World, Faze and AppStorm. I’ve also appeared on TV as a tech expert for Global, CTV and the Shopping Channel.

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