- Amazon Alexa+ is now available in early access in the UK
- The AI-powered virtual assistant has completely adapted to British life
- It will cost £19.99 a month on its own, but it’s also included with Amazon Prime
Amazon’s AI-powered virtual assistant Alexa+ is finally launching in the UK, promising more natural conversations, more advanced control over your smart home devices and the ability to better understand your accent.
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 invitation now.
Alexa+ will come to 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 can also 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 also connected to services used in the UK, as well as British news sources such as the BBC, The Guardian and, yes, TechRadar.
I attended a demo in London yesterday and heard some Alexa+ interactions. 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; He not only understands the subtle (and not so subtle) meaning of particular local phrases, but also uses them. Trevor Wood, chief scientist at Cambridge-based Alexa, demonstrated localization in the UK by asking about the previous night’s football score. Knowing which team Wood supports, Alexa replied: “Fantastic news mate, Arsenal absolutely beat 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 the aggregate score 8-2. It is their heaviest knockout defeat in Champions League history.”
This sounded a little strange in Alexa’s middle-class female voice, and you won’t be able to choose a different accent, but the assistant should be able to understand yours, no matter where you’re from. According to Amazon, you won’t have any problems even with strong regional accents thanks to training on large amounts of data from across the UK.
It also integrates with Ring doorbells and cameras if you have a Ring Home Premium subscription, and works seamlessly with Ring Smart Video Search, which lets you search for specific events using natural language, whether it’s “Did the dog go out yesterday afternoon” or “Did anyone stand in the bins on Sunday?”
The idea is that Alexa+ is an ‘ambient’ assistant, which is present whenever you need it and goes into the background when you don’t need it. It knows what smart devices you have, what’s on your calendar, what you like to watch on TV, and even where you are in your house, and uses all 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 bundled with Amazon Prime for £8.99 a month, so there’s not much reason to pay for it separately.
