Last week, Amazon announced two new Echo Show devices during its fall hardware event . From the stage, Amazon execs repeatedly used the phrase “blend into the background.” Amazon hardware chief Panos Panay told a personal story, recounting how Alexa+ was able to “shift the balance” at his dinner table, supplying his family with facts to settle their mealtime debates, no phones required. He praised the fact that Alexa+ can help "without distracting you” or “taking you away from what’s most important.” Laudable sentiment, for sure. It’s jarring to be ripped away from a moment by uninvited tech.
So if the folks at Amazon really believe Alexa-enabled tech should fade into the background , they may agree that when I’m in my kitchen slicing an apple for my kid and I glance up at my Echo Show cycling through family photos, it’s really frickin distracting when the shot of the forested field just outside my old house is replaced by a full-screen advertisement for Dewalt drill bits. It sure as heckfire takes me out of the moment. My Echo Show does not “fade into the background;” it sticks ads in my face.
I don’t remember it always being this way. I can recall a time, maybe a year or so ago, when my Echo Show 15 happily cycled through my photos with no billboard pop-ups. An Amazon rep I spoke with assured me that advertising has always been a part of the Echo Show experience, though they were less clear as to whether or not there may have been a change to the way ads were served on the home screen and photo carousel.
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That year-or-so-timeline jibes with what I’m seeing on Reddit and Amazon’s help pages . From one to two years ago, complaints started popping up. People were suddenly confronted with ads and hoping, in vain, that someone could explain how to turn them off. The posts ranged from confusion to disbelief , to irritation and infuriation — exactly the emotional range I experienced when a cereal ad popped up (coincidentally?) while I was making breakfast.
I, like those hopeful redditors, wondered whether there was a secret setting, some buried menu option that would offer escape from the march of commerce while I washed the dishes. So I double checked with the Amazon rep and had it unequivocally confirmed: There is no way to turn these ads off.
I get it. From the printing press to AI chatbots , ads have always been inseparable from technology. My very paycheck depends, in part, on that airline/insurance/PC banner over there on your screen. I accept that I must first close the Old Spice pop up to read an article on Deadline. I tolerate the pillow commercial on YouTube so I can watch Josh Johnson ruminate. I begrudgingly agree to these things; They’re part of the contract. But a billboard in my kitchen? Family vacation pics interspersed with Moen faucet promos? That’s not something I agreed to. I shouldn’t have to suffer through an ad so I can watch content if the content is my own damn pictures and the home page of a machine I paid hundreds of dollars to own. Built-in ads don't even subsidize the cost of an Echo Show like they do with Kindles — buying one of Amazon’s ereaders with lockscreen ads at least knocks $20 off the price.
If, as we were told last week, Alexa+ and its vessels are supposed to fade into the background, if we’re meant to invite this AI into our homes, into our kitchens, to our dinner tables, as a distraction-free helper, then un-opt-outable ads on the Echo Show home screen are not aligned with that goal. I’ve unplugged my Echo Show 15. Soon I’ll delete my data from it and stick it on the sidewalk with a big free sign on it. If you’re in the neighborhood, you’re welcome to pick it up.