The company has also tuned Alexa+ for Indian speech patterns and cultural references. It can interpret expressions such as “dhai baje,” measurements such as “ek paav,” and family relationship terms including bhanja, bhateeji, jethani and devar. Amazon says the assistant is also designed to understand subjects such as Bollywood, cricket and Indian festivals.
The bigger change is what Alexa can do after understanding a request. Alexa+ can help users discover music, manage schedules, plan meals, control connected devices, shop for products and send emails. Amazon also plans to expand its capabilities in India to areas including restaurant reservations, food delivery, event bookings, travel reservations and home services.
Those future integrations are expected to include Eazy Diner, Swiggy, District by Zomato, MakeMyTrip, Home Triangle and TripAdvisor.
For entertainment, Alexa+ works with services including Amazon Music, Spotify, Apple Music, JioSaavn, Prime Video and Netflix. Users can also control supported smart-home products from brands including Atomberg, Qubo, Dreame and Wipro.
Amazon is giving Alexa+ more awareness of what is happening across those services and devices. A user listening to music, for example, can ask Alexa to adjust the room lighting to match the song without separately specifying what is playing.
Personalization is another major part of the update. Alexa+ can learn information about a user’s routines, entertainment preferences and foods they avoid. Voice and visual identification can distinguish between members of a household and tailor responses or actions to the person making the request.
Amazon says Alexa+ can also act proactively based on established routines. It may remind users about tasks, identify conflicts in their schedules or adjust connected devices when it recognizes a familiar pattern.
The company describes this approach as “ambient AI,” with Alexa designed to use factors such as routines, the time of day and a person’s location inside the home to determine when assistance could be useful.
Alexa+ will work across Echo devices, Fire TV and the Alexa app, allowing conversations to continue between devices. Amazon says browser access through alexa.com is also coming to customers in India.
Shopping is becoming more conversational as well. Alexa+ can recommend products, suggest alternatives when something is unavailable, maintain shopping lists and account for dietary preferences. It can also monitor Amazon deliveries, surface price drops on wish-list products, compare features and summarize verified customer reviews.
Amazon also plans to connect Alexa+ with Amazon Now. Once available, customers will be able to search for groceries and household essentials, choose products, add them to a cart and place an order through voice conversation. Amazon says the delivery would then be handled through the existing Amazon Now fulfillment process.
Smart-home controls have also been redesigned around conversational requests instead of exact device names. A user can say that a room is dark and Alexa+ can determine which lights to turn on based on where the person is. Users can also create routines by voice that combine lighting, entertainment, curtains and connected appliances.
Amazon said parts of the technology behind Alexa+ were developed by teams in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune and Chennai. Their work included speech recognition for Indian homes, language models capable of handling Hinglish and systems designed for culturally specific requests.
The company is also carrying over its existing Alexa privacy controls. Through the Alexa Privacy dashboard, users can review interactions, listen to what Alexa recorded, inspect shared attachments and change how long voice recordings are retained.
Alexa+ is free for all customers during Early Access. Users can check their eligibility or receive immediate access by purchasing a new eligible Echo or Fire TV device.
After Early Access ends, Alexa+ will remain included for Prime plan members. Prime Lite, Prime Shopping Edition and non-Prime customers will be able to subscribe separately for ₹2,000 per month or access the service through a Prime plan.
Amazon is also positioning its latest hardware around the new assistant. The Echo Show 8, Echo Show 11, Echo Dot Max and Echo Studio were built for Alexa+ with additional processing capacity, memory, edge computing and updated sensors.
The India launch follows eight years of Alexa availability in the country. Amazon says customers in India interacted with Alexa more than nine billion times during the past 12 months.
This analysis is based on reporting from Amazon.
Images courtesy of Amazon.
This article was generated with AI assistance and reviewed for accuracy and quality.
