Amazon Alexa | The Verge

How the Amazon Echo learned to talk — and listen

2026-04-05T08:24:45-04:00

A photo of a black speaker, the Amazon Echo, on a gray background. | Photo: Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Jeff Bezos badly wanted a voice computer. He had been saying so publicly since the very early days of Amazon, telling anyone who would listen about why voice might make it easier and more natural to interact with technology. (And to buy stuff from Jeff Bezos.) But when a team at Amazon set out to actually make the voice computer a reality, they encountered a seemingly endless series of hard problems. Eventually, though, they created two products, the Echo speaker and the Alexa voice assistant, that would help bring a new kind of computer to millions of people.

On this episode of Version History, we tell the story of the Echo's development i …

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You can order Grubhub and Uber Eats ‘conversationally’ with Alexa Plus

2026-03-31T09:08:25-04:00

Amazon is giving you a new way to order food through Grubhub and Uber Eats with Alexa without having to endure an awkward exchange just to add fries. Amazon said the entire process is meant to be conversational, building your order in a similar manner to ordering in a restaurant.

That means changing your order, modifying an item, or adding a drink mid-conversation is as simple as saying so, without having to wait for Alexa to finish talking. Amazon said Alexa will only step in when you need help or have questions.

"For years, voice assistants have operated on a call-and-response model: you ask, it answers," Amazon said in a press release …

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Ring finally brings 4K video to its battery-powered doorbell camera

2026-04-08T12:03:42-04:00

Ring has announced its first battery-powered 2K and 4K doorbell cameras. The Ring Battery Video Doorbell Pro 2nd Gen ($249.99) offers 4K video resolution and 10x digital zoom, while the Battery Video Doorbell Plus 2nd Gen ($179.99) offers 2K video and 6x zoom. The Battery Video Doorbell 2nd Gen ($99.99) also has 2K but uses a built-in battery unlike the other two, which have removable batteries. The new doorbell cameras are now available for pre-order and will be released on April 29th.

The company also announced an upgrade to its Wired Video Doorbell 2nd Gen ($79.99), bringing 2K Video to its budget doorbell camera. All the models get the …

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Amazon is making an Alexa phone

2026-03-20T10:04:15-04:00

Over 10 years after shelving the Fire Phone, Amazon is reportedly planning to launch another smartphone, this time focused on Alexa. According to Reuters, the phone, which is code-named "Transformer," will center around Amazon's AI assistant, but Alexa won't "necessarily be the primary operating system of the phone."

"Transformer" is currently in development in Amazon's ZeroOne group, led by J Allard, who previously worked on the Zune and Xbox at Microsoft. Allard's team has reportedly explored both smartphone and "dumbphone" designs, taking inspiration from the $700 minimalist Light Phone, which features a black-and-white display and lack …

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OpenAI snags $110 billion in investments from Amazon, Nvidia, and Softbank

2026-02-27T09:59:39-05:00

OpenAI has closed another round of funding, totalling $110 billion being newly committed to the maker of ChatGPT, which it says has more than 900 million weekly active users and over 50 million consumer subscribers. Amazon is investing $50 billion and striking a deal that includes plans for custom models and more. Nvidia and SoftBank are each contributing $30 billion, as well, even as the Wall Street Journal notes that Nvidia's previous $100 billion investment plan is "on ice." This marks another massive influx of cash for the company that's now valued at $730 billion, and previously closed a $40 billion round in 2025. At the time, it was th …

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Amazon’s AGI lab leader is leaving

2026-02-25T10:24:39-05:00

After less than two years at Amazon, David Luan, the head of Amazon's San Francisco AI lab, is departing the company. Luan announced the update in a post on LinkedIn on Tuesday, saying, "I'll be leaving Amazon at the end of this week to cook up something new." He added that, "There's incredible work to be done at Amazon and opportunities for me to take on more areas. But with AGI so close, I decided to spend 100% of my time on teaching AI systems brand new capabilities."

The loss of a top AI developer at Amazon comes as the company struggles to keep up in the AI race; even its own employees are reportedly calling its in-house AI products " …

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You can now make Alexa’s AI personality more friendly, blunt, or chilled out

2026-02-25T08:43:11-05:00

That Brief option sounds great for people like me who find cheerful chatbots to be creepy or unsettling. | Image: Amazon

Amazon is giving you more control over how Alexa behaves during conversations and responses. Three "personality style" presets are launching today for Alexa Plus users in the US that allow you to make the AI-powered voice assistant more concise, cheerful, or relaxed, depending on your personal preferences.

"Alexa's personality is one of the things customers tell us they love most about Alexa," Amazon said in its press release. "That familiar voice and personality have become a part of so many customers' daily lives, but here's what we've learned from customers since launching Alexa Plus: everyone has their own communication style and prefer …

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Amazon’s Send to Alexa Plus makes the Kindle Scribe feel more like a productivity device

2026-02-12T09:04:48-05:00

Amazon's rolling out a new "Send to Alexa Plus" feature to the latest Kindle Scribe and Kindle Scribe Colorsoft owners starting February 12. The feature lets you send your notes or documents to Amazon's AI-powered Alexa Plus assistant, which can then summarize them, turn them into to-do lists, calendar events, or reminders, as well as help brainstorm, and offer project guidance.

I spent about a day or so testing it primarily to help with caregiving tasks, and it was mostly helpful despite some limitations. It works best when asked to digest information into something actionable. It accurately summarized my handwritten notes and PDF document …

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The Alexa app is so bad I’m using Siri again

2026-02-06T17:25:10-05:00

My shopping list in Apple’s Reminders app (left) and in Amazon’s Alexa app (right). A recent UI overhaul of the Alexa app has made the list a lot harder to add to and use. | Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images

I've used Alexa to manage my shopping list for years. There are plenty of great list apps out there, but the convenience of adding items by voice anywhere in my house, pulling up the list on an Echo Show in the kitchen, and having it on my phone via the Alexa app has worked well for me. Until it didn't.

Alexa Plus, combined with a redesign of the Alexa app that puts the generative AI-powered assistant front and center, has made the entire process so irritating that I've reluctantly switched to Apple's Reminders app and Siri.

This is not what I wanted. I have Echos all over my house, but only a couple of HomePods, and Siri insists on saying …

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Amazon rolls out Alexa Plus nationwide and launches a new free tier

2026-02-04T09:08:12-05:00

Amazon has announced that its generative AI-powered digital assistant Alexa Plus is now available to all Prime members in the US via any Alexa-enabled device, Alexa.com, and the Alexa mobile app. If you don't have Prime, you can access the assistant on a new free tier on the web and app, or pay $20 a month for unlimited access to Alexa Plus, without Prime.

Alexa Plus initially launched in March 2025 in an Early Access program and, over the last year, has slowly expanded to tens of millions of users, Daniel Rausch, vice president of Alexa and Echo, told The Verge in an interview.

Now, the smarter, more conversational assistant is moving o …

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