Amazon Alexa+ Review

Product Name: Introduction

At some point, Alexa lost a little of its magic. When it was released over a decade ago, there was nothing quite like it. It felt like the future had finally arrived. However, over time, limitations became apparent. Alexa couldn’t do everything, and commands often needed to be expressed in a certain way (what became known as Alexa speaking).

Now, a new version of GenAI-powered Alexa+ is finally available in the UK. The conversational upgrade brings Alexa+ back to using your voice, asking questions, controlling your smart home, and more. It’s not perfect, but it’s a much better home assistant.

availability

Alexa+ is currently available in early access. So it’s free, but you also need an invitation to use it. The quickest way to get access is to buy a new smart speaker like the Echo Show 11, but you can also register your interest online and wait for an invite.

Ultimately, Alexa+ will cost £19.99/$19.99 per month, but it’s bundled with Amazon Prime.

Conversation and general information

Before we get into it, please note that Alexa+ varies depending on which part of the world you live in. Alexa+ is more than a standard voice assistant; it’s built to understand regional differences and respond appropriately. Here in the UK, this meant Amazon had to do quite a bit of work teaching Alexa+ how to understand and respond to many regional accents.

One thing that remains the same across countries is that Alexa+ no longer requires Alexa Speak to function. Instead, speak in the normal way, as if you were talking to a human (or typing into ChatGPT).

So while you can say “Alexa, weather” to get a basic overview of the weather in your location, you can also ask, “When is a good day to have a barbecue?” or “Will the weather be stable this week?”

Alexa+ understands your questions, responds in an appropriate way, and provides intelligent answers to your questions. It’s unlikely that Alexa+ will say it doesn’t understand, but if it doesn’t, you can rephrase your question. Again, it’s like talking to a real person.

More importantly, Alexa+ can obtain context both in the short and long term. For example, you can always follow up on your last request with a question and Alexa+ will respond without having to repeat everything.

However, over time, Alexa+ may accumulate information about you, your family, and friends. It does this both directly (when you first sign up for Alexa+, you have to select settings such as your favorite music) and by learning based on your questions. You can also be specific with Alexa+ information, such as “Alexa, I’m a Spurs fan” or “Alexa, my wife is a vegetarian.”

This information is used by Alexa+ to fine-tune its responses. When I follow Vegetarian Info and ask Alexa+ to recommend some chicken dishes for me and my wife, it reminds me that my wife doesn’t eat chicken and suggests vegetarian recipes instead.

When I try the same thing with Gemini for Home, it completely fails and comes up with a lot of recipes for chicken dishes.

Alexa+ can also adjust your emotional responses. When asked about football results, Alexa+ was forced to adopt a mostly sad tone towards the Spurs, while recent wins were reported in a more excited and happy tone.

Alexa+ is also great at pulling information from the internet, answering almost any question you can think of. For example, they might tell you what the last song in Fight Club is (Pixies, Where Is My Mind?). That could tell us if the latest subway strike is underway, when it starts, and when it ends. And you can find out who won the award for best original music in 2003 (Elliot Goldenthal for Frida).

This is impressive, and when you want to know something quickly, it’s often better to use Alexa+ than pull out your phone and get caught up in a doomscrolling process.

Alexa+ is great for getting information, but its default responses often border on annoying. Voice assistants are programmed to be a little too loud, too verbose, and too friendly.

When I asked about Tube Strike, my first reaction was way too excited. Alexa+ kept calling me “mate” when it came to football. In general, Alexa+ speaks a lot rather than giving a simple response.

However, Alexa+ is designed to learn. Alexa+ remembers when you tell it you don’t like being called “friend” or that you prefer short answers. The more you use it, the more it will suit you.

Well, almost. Problems can still occur, but things are getting better. When I asked about the Spurs on the Echo Show, Alexa+ returned information about the football club, but it wasn’t very helpful as it gave me a shortcut to more information about the San Antonio Spurs. However, this issue has since been fixed and you will now have the correct information.

local business search

Another area where Alexa+ needs significant improvement is local business information. This is horribly outdated and unhelpful. When I asked for the nearest French restaurant, I was recommended one that would close in 2023, but no better restaurants were listed at all.

There can also be discrepancies between what Alexa+ says and the information Alexa+ displays on your Echo Show. As for the French restaurant, Alexa+ told me it was open from 5pm to 9pm, but a snippet of the TripAdvisor screen showed the restaurant was closed (it said today, but it was actually forever).

You can use your voice to make reservations at OpenTable restaurants with simple commands like date, time, and number of people. Or you can ask your diary to find a slot for a certain date, and Alexa+ does the hard work of finding and booking it for you.

It would be great if it worked, but it would be limited to restaurants that don’t require card information (Amazon is working on this).

It would be even better if Amazon could spend some money updating live local listings.

documents, calendars, etc.

Alexa+ can link to your email and calendar to help you manage them. Unless you pay to use Google or Microsoft email, these accounts are currently not supported, which is a little frustrating. At this time, free accounts are supported.

As mentioned above, calendar information can be used for purposes such as finding a time to go to a restaurant. However, you can also add events using Alexa+. For example, if you ask when your team will play next, Alexa+ can add a calendar reminder.

Things get really smart when you add Alexa+’s ability to understand structured data from documents. You can also send emails to Alexa+, use the app to upload documents, and even take a photo of something.

I sent the PDF of my daughter’s DofE information, and within minutes the app sent me a few to-do list items (things to get and things to bring), as well as calendar entries for various training days and expeditions.

I used my camera to take a photo of my school’s horribly structured term date page, and Alexa+ instantly retrieved the school’s holidays and insert dates. This can save you real time.

Alexa+ saves and remembers your documents. I was able to send a PDF instruction manual for my dishwasher and ask Alexa+ about it. For example, I could ask what an error code meant or where the salt was going. The same goes for game instructions.

smart home

Alexa+ can do everything your old system could do, and more. Natural language makes a big difference.

If it’s cold, you can turn up the heat by simply saying, “Alexa, it’s cold in here,” instead of hearing the current temperature in the room and asking again to set it higher.

You can also create routines more easily. They can be permanent, like turning the lights on and off at a certain time every day, or temporary, like “Alexa, turn off the heat in 10 minutes.”

You can also chain commands together for one-time executions, such as turning on a light, waiting 10 minutes, and then turning it off again. But in reality, they can go in the wrong direction.

“Alexa, set Dave’s office heater to 25° and turn it off after 5 minutes,” I said. Alexa created a routine that matched my description, but the trigger was the full long phrase I used. It wasn’t what I wanted.

But Alexa+ is constantly learning and improving, and it does what I want over 90% of the time, even with complex commands.

final thoughts

Alexa+ is a big step up from standard Alexa. It’s easier to talk to, it’s smarter, its responses (when tweaked to your liking) feel more natural, and its ability to learn and understand wider context means it gets better the more you use it. Currently local search is poor and the lack of support for work calendars is annoying, but these will improve. Also, excellent smart home support and the ability to deliver information from PDFs, photos, and emails make this the best smart assistant at the moment.

Test method

When we publish a review, you can rest assured that it is the result of long-term testing.

Smart assistants typically exist within an ecosystem, or perhaps a set of products that all work together in harmony. And it’s designed to give you a variety of options. Therefore, it is impossible to use a smart assistant for weeks and make a judgment.

We test smart home kits all day every day, so we know what’s important and how a particular smart vacuum compares to the alternatives you’re considering.

Our reviews are comprehensive, objective and unbiased, and of course we don’t receive direct compensation to review devices.