After accumulating quite a few delays, it seems that Amazon already has its next big launch ready. And no, we are not talking about a new Echo speaker, but one of the most important changes for the brand in recent years. We are talking about the new version of Alexa, an optional modality that will be based on artificial intelligence and that as the main novelty will have a paid subscription.
Paid Alexa arrives
Been The Washington Post who has been able to obtain some internal documents related to the new version of the assistant. Under the name Remarkable Alexa or Project Banyan, the new assistant will be able to make daily summaries with the new “Smart Information” function, which will deliver a summary of the daily news always in accordance with the user's preferences.
And the current assistant is not capable of doing that. Until now, Alexa relied on skills from news services to recite a previously written text with the summarized news, or failing that, it launched a video with the summary of the news.
At the interaction level, the new Alexa will be more communicative and charismatic, and apparently it will be able to recognize the user's voice to interact with them and refine future requests. The example they give is that if Alexa asks you about your family and you tell her that there is a member who has a peanut allergy, she will take this into account in future recipe suggestions.
The idea is that the assistant can even report details of products sold on Amazon, being able to ask you what colors some shoes are available in or what sizes are in stock. In any case, everything related to the Marketplace will be linked to a new product known internally as Shopping Scout, which will be able to notify when a product is on sale.
The new assistant is expected to arrive in October, and the documents They point out that it will cost $10 a month. As with many Amazon products, it is most likely that this launch will occur first in the United States, and it will not be until a few months before it reaches the rest of the markets. We will see if these times are respected as soon as the official announcement is made.
Is Alexa going to stop being free?
Many users will ask themselves the same question. With the launch of the new version of Alexa, will I have to pay to use it? No. The classic Alexa will continue to exist, and only those who want to use the new version will have to pay the monthly amount required for their subscription.
Source: The Washington Post