- Amazon Alexa+ is now available in Early Access in the UK
- The AI-powered virtual assistant has been fully localised for British life
- It will cost £19.99 a month by itself, but is also included with Amazon Prime
Amazon's AI-powered virtual assistant, Alexa+, is finally rolling out in the UK, promising more natural conversations, more advanced control over your smart home devices, and the ability to understand your accent better.
The assistant launched in the US last spring, and is now available in Early Access in the UK for the new Amazon Echo Show 8 and Echo Show 11, Echo Dot Max, and Echo Studio. If you already own one of these devices, you can sign up for an Early Access invite now.
Alexa+ will arrive for other Alexa-enabled devices in the future — which will be a lot. According to Amazon, more people in the UK own an Alexa-enabled device than start their day with a cup of tea. You will also be able to use it with your Fire TV, and it will soon be available in a web browser at alexa.co.uk.
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Alexa+ is connected to services used in the UK too, plus British news sources including the BBC, the Guardian, and, yes, TechRadar.
I attended a demo in London yesterday, and heard some Alexa+ interactions for myself. The new assistant is definitely more conversational, and its ability to understand commands is impressive; you don't need to change the way you speak or use a very specific sentence structure for the assistant to understand you.
Alexa+ also sounds more British; not only does it understand the subtle (and not so subtle) meaning of particular local phrases, it uses them as well. Cambridge-based Trevor Wood, Lead Scientist at Alexa, demonstrated the UK localisation by asking about the previous night's football score. Knowing which team Wood supports, Alexa responded: "Fantastic news mate, Arsenal absolutely smashed Leverkusen 2-0 last night at the Emirates."
Wood then asked for an update on behalf of his friend PJ, a Chelsea supporter. "Tough night for Chelsea, mate," Alexa replied sadly. "PSG beat them 3-0 at Stamford Bridge, making it 8-2 on aggregate. It's their heaviest knockout defeat in Champions League history."
This did sound slightly strange in Alexa's middle-class female voice, and you won't be able to pick a different accent, but the assistant should be able to understand yours, wherever you're from. According to Amazon, it will have no trouble with even strong regional accents thanks to training on large amounts of data from around the whole UK.
It also integrates with Ring doorbells and cameras if you have a Ring Home Premium subscription, working seamlessly with Ring Smart Video Search, which lets you search for specific events using natural language — whether that's 'Did the dog go out yesterday afternoon' or 'Did someone stand on the bins on Sunday?"
The idea is that Alexa+ is an 'ambient' assistant, which is present whenever you need it, and fades into the background when you don't. It knows which smart devices you own, what's on your calendar, what you like to watch on TV, and even where you are in your home, and uses all of this information to help you in a way that makes sense.
Alexa+ will be free in Early Access, and will cost £19.99 a month thereafter. However, it also comes included with Amazon Prime for £8.99 a month, so there's not much reason to pay for it separately.
English (US) ·