is a news writer covering all things consumer tech. Stevie started out at Laptop Mag writing news and reviews on hardware, gaming, and AI.
Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.
Over the past couple of weeks, users on the r/alexa subreddit have reported getting automatically upgraded to Alexa Plus as a perk for their Prime memberships. The update doesn’t appear to be opt-in, but there’s an option to roll it back.
Screenshots of a message from Amazon sent to users state that, “After your device updates, you can still revert to the original Alexa by saying, ‘Alexa, exit Alexa+.’”
Alexa Plus is an LLM-powered overhaul of Alexa that’s intended to help Amazon’s voice assistant compete with rivals like Google Gemini. Not everyone is eager to use the latest version of Amazon’s AI, though, and the rollout of the Gemini update for Google Home has had its own issues, like misidentifying objects and hallucinating camera activity.
Some users on Reddit have responded to Amazon’s update with a variety of reasons for wanting to stick with the original Alexa, including disliking Alexa’s new voice and attitude and experiencing longer wait times for Alexa Plus to respond to queries. Users also report an influx of ads for Alexa Plus, including one user who said that after they turned off the updated Alexa, they got “flooded with ads” until they turned it back on.