Last year, Amazon launched the Echo Show 8 Photos Edition that could default to displaying owners’ favorite pictures — as long as they paid an extra fee. Now Amazon has confirmed that this plan has been abandoned, with the Echo Show 8 Photos Edition and its accompanying $2 / month PhotosPlus subscription no longer available on Amazon’s website.
Amazon cancels the Echo Show 8 Photos Edition’s main feature — focusing on photos
The smart display that attached a fee to basic digital photo frame features will no longer be able to display slideshows of your favorite pictures indefinitely.
The smart display that attached a fee to basic digital photo frame features will no longer be able to display slideshows of your favorite pictures indefinitely.
Photo by Alex Cranz / The Verge
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In a message sent to customers, Amazon says the service has been canceled and that it will no longer offer the subscription starting September 23rd.
The PhotosPlus subscription is what owners need to make photos “the primary content you see” on the Echo Show 8 Photos Edition with a slideshow that rotates every 30 seconds. It also offers the ability to show photos “indefinitely,” as other Echo Show displays will replace your photo slideshow with promotions and ads after three hours.
But now that Amazon’s doing away with the subscription, people who paid more for the $159.99 Echo Show 8 Photos Edition won’t get to display their photos more prominently, and the device will essentially become a standard Echo Show 8. Amazon spokesperson Courtney Ramirez says the company discontinued the Echo Show 8 Photos Edition in March.
“We regularly evaluate our products and services based on customer feedback,” Ramirez says in an emailed statement. “Customers interested in turning their Echo Show devices into a digital photo display can continue to do so by visiting settings > Clock & Photo Display or by saying ‘Alexa, start Photo Frame.’”
Even though Amazon is discontinuing this feature, the company says PhotosPlus users can still access the 25GB of photo and video storage it offered through the subscription.
Update, August 21st: Added a statement from Amazon.
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