DT Next Tech | Amazon levels up in India with the all-new Alexa+

CHENNAI: Amazon’s generative AI-powered personal assistant – Alexa+, finally kept its date with India. The all-new version of Alexa is positioned as a conversational, smarter, deeply personalised digitally companion that is also ready for Indian households. Alexa+ currently supports conversations in English, Hindi and Hinglish. Amazon has indicated that Alexa+ will add support for more Indian languages soon.

We set up Alexa+ on an Echo Show 8, one of the Amazon devices (that also that Echo Show 11, Echo Dot Max, and Echo Studio) that are purpose-built for Alexa+, delivering more processing power, memory, and edge-based computing with next-generation sensors. You can access Alexa+ on eligible Echo smart speakers and smart displays, Fire TV streaming devices, and the Alexa mobile app.

We tried it with out of the box with a few services and apps like Spotify, Apple Music, Prime Video, and Netflix. Alexa+ also allows you to intuitively control your smart home with devices from brands like Atomberg, Qubo, and Wipro. Alexa+ can help you discover and play music, podcasts, and films through a variety of ways like mood, activity, or description. Alexa+ set up the bedroom lights to match the beats of our easy listening, chill playlist via a compatible smart light set-up.

Alexa+ is designed to understand how customers actually speak and understands intent alongside their words. You can say ‘Alexa’ once and talk to her naturally without repeating the wake word every time. You can change topics mid conversation and speak in mixed languages - all without losing context.

Alexa+ learns customer preferences, understands family routines, and adapts to individual households. Alexa+ also enhances the overall shopping experience—she can help you build shopping lists accounting for family preferences , alert on price drops for wish list items, discover products aligned with customer interests, and track Amazon.in deliveries.

The Alexa Privacy dashboard lets you review and manage you interactions, listen to exactly what Alexa heard, review shared attachments, and set voice recording retention preferences. Alexa+ will be free for all customers during Early Access, from September 2026. After Early Access ends, Alexa+ will stay free for Prime plan members.

(Ashwin Rajagopalan is a lifestyle writer and consumer technology expert. Catch the latest digital and tech updates in this weekly column.)