The assistant Amazon wanted $19.99 a month for is now free on Fire TV — and nobody has to sign up for anything
Amazon began rolling out Alexa+ to all compatible Fire TV devices in the United States on 19 August at no extra cost, whether or not the customer pays for Prime. Until now Alexa+ cost $19.99 a month for anyone without a Prime membership. The rollout covers current-generation Fire TV Sticks, the Fire TV Cube, Amazon's own Ember sets and third-party televisions with Alexa+ built in, including models from Hisense and Panasonic. Amazon says the upgrade is automatic: there is no app to download, no sign-up and no setting to find. What arrives is conversational search — describing what you want to watch in ordinary language rather than typing an exact title — along with smart-home control and recommendations from the same assistant.
Why it mattersYesterday Microsoft switched off the most capable free tier in Copilot and put its replacement behind a $19.99 monthly subscription. Today Amazon takes an assistant it had been charging $19.99 a month for and gives it away. These are the same bet read from opposite ends: Microsoft thinks the assistant is the product, Amazon thinks the assistant is what keeps you inside the hardware and the shop. For anyone with a Fire TV the practical effect is that an AI assistant arrives in the living room without a decision being made about it. No sign-up also means no moment where you consider what it is listening for and what that is worth to the company giving it away, which is worth noticing even if you conclude you do not mind.
▶ Related video: Introducing AI-powered search for Fire TV Devices
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