- Prime members are automatically upgraded to Alexa+
- Users remain mixed on the service
- You can unsubscribe and go back to regular old Alexa
When Amazon announced Alexa+, the future looked bright for the AI-powered smart assistant, poised to offer agent assistance that could even rival Google Gemini and ChatGPT.
However, even though the service offers a next-generation upgrade that could revolutionize home assistants as we know them, there’s still a long way to go before many of the promised features are fully functional (or, indeed, available to users).
There is an obvious reason for this; Alexa+ is still in early access, which means all current users are effectively part of a big beta test, as noted by Reddit users in r/AmazonEcho. However, this beta test appears to have expanded to a group of Prime customers via automatic sign-up for the service, as reported by The Verge, and this has once again pissed off the user base.
That being said, if your main reasons for withdrawal are preventative, it’s worth trying the service yourself, as there are a number of very happy customers who might convince you otherwise.
It could be worse…
Am I the only person on the planet who actually likes Alexa+? from r/amazonecho
We’ve already addressed some of these recent concerns, as well as our own hands-on testing of Alexa+ early access, but all is not doom and gloom in Alexa+ land.
In light of complaints about reduced functionality and excessive advertising, some are calling out specific features that to have actually improved when using the service.
“I love the change! I can finally get answers to my questions,” says one user, referring to Alexa’s improved conversational capabilities and better search functions. “It makes my daily routines smoother and I love how it integrates with my smart home devices,” adds one commenter.
Indeed, smart home control seems to be a recurring theme among those who take advantage of the service, which offers enhanced voice control from chaining queries to setting up natural language automation.
Elsewhere, people are discovering new ways to use Alexa+ after the upgrade: “I’m having a blast with my Alexa+ in my art studio/store. She’s my salesperson and I think she’s awesome.” said a Reddit user in another thread.
Additionally, its contextual knowledge seems to prove useful in practice for some users: “The other day I was making German pancakes and I had a recipe and I could just ask things like ‘How much flour?’ How many eggs? What ingredients are left? and that followed and guided me through the recipe.
…but it could be better!
Look on it
Following some of these complaints, other Reddit users are blaming the negative bias of Reddit’s user base for the widespread complaints about the service.
Others agreed, recognizing the room for improvement but with a little more patience than some Internet users. “These days, no software is ever perfect at the time of release, and maybe never afterward either. The good thing about Alexa+ is that it’s new, so it has a team of developers working on bug fixes and improvements, and that can only be a good thing,” said one user.
“Even people who have little experience with it today should see, if they report problems, that the system is getting better – because it’s sort of inevitable in this day and age.”
Along the same lines, other users are using Alexa+ to become more familiar with AI: “The reason I use Alexa is because AI is not going away and I want to understand how it works. Of course, it’s imperfect, but it’s unrealistic to think that a new technology is going to be fully developed.
This is an interesting consideration; Alexa+ shows no signs of slowing down, with Amazon recently launching Alexa+ on the web and integrating the AI assistant into a wide range of devices, from electric vehicles to home appliances.
Unsubscribe made easy
Still, many unhappy customers decide they don’t want the free upgrade, for simple reasons like Alexa+’s squeaky “Valley Girl” cadence, diminished features, and an abundance of ads.
This is doubly true given that the free Alexa+ upgrade for Prime users currently rolling out is automatic, meaning you can’t decline and unsubscribe until the service is already active; Fortunately, it is a very simple process to remove yourself from the hive mind.
Simply say “Alexa, leave Alexa+” to remove the service from your Echo devices, and if you change your mind later, you can rejoin it by saying “Alexa, enter Alexa+.” It’s that simple!
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