Overview
- Amazon announced on Wednesday that it will automatically upgrade compatible Fire TV devices in the U.S. to Alexa+ at no charge, with no download or subscription required.
- Eligible hardware includes current‑generation Fire TV Sticks, the Fire TV Cube, Amazon Ember smart TVs, and select third‑party TVs from makers such as Hisense and Panasonic.
- Alexa+ brings conversational search, on‑screen answers about what’s playing, personalized recommendations, scene‑jumping and smart‑home controls like showing Ring camera feeds and controlling locks and lights.
- The assistant runs on large language models from Amazon Nova and Anthropic through Amazon Bedrock, and Amazon says Alexa+ users have nearly twice as many conversations on Fire TV and pick its top recommendations over 40% more than with the old Alexa.
- The free, automatic rollout changes prior pricing that charged non‑Prime users $19.99 a month, tightens Amazon’s device and service ecosystem, and raises questions about user consent, data use, and potential vendor lock‑in as AI features become standard on TVs.