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Alexa.com Brings Chatbot Experience to Your Browser
The new Alexa.com website works like any other AI chatbot you’ve used before. Type your questions, get answers, explore topics. But Amazon added features that set it apart from competitors.
Users can control smart home devices directly from the chat window. Check your Ring doorbell camera feed while chatting. Adjust your thermostat without opening another app. Turn on lights, unlock doors, or check security cameras, all without leaving the conversation.
The sidebar navigation gives quick access to recent chats, shopping lists, calendar appointments, and uploaded files. Everything stays in one window. You won’t need to juggle multiple tabs or apps.
Upload Personal Documents to Make Alexa+ Your Family Hub
Here’s where Amazon’s strategy gets interesting. The company wants families to upload personal documents, emails, and photos to Alexa.com. The AI can then extract important details and manage your household calendar.
Forward your kid’s soccer schedule email to Alexa+. The assistant pulls out practice times, game days, and locations. It adds everything to your family calendar automatically. Upload a photo of a handwritten note about your neighbour’s BBQ party. Alexa+ reads it and creates a calendar reminder.
The AI can also track when your dog got its last rabies shot, when school holidays start, or what time the dentist appointment is scheduled. You ask, Alexa remembers.
This approach targets a gap in Amazon’s ecosystem. Google already has access to millions of people’s Gmail, Calendar, and Drive data. Amazon doesn’t own a productivity suite, so it needs users to manually share information. The company built tools to forward emails and upload files to Alexa+ for this exact reason.
Alexa+ Mobile App Gets Chatbot-First Redesign
Amazon didn’t stop at the web. The company also redesigned its mobile Alexa app with what it calls an “agent-forward” experience.
The chatbot interface now sits front and centre on the homepage. Open the app, and you see a chat window ready for your questions. The old menu-driven layout takes a back seat. Amazon wants chatting to be your primary way of interacting with Alexa+, not tapping through menus.
This mirrors how people use ChatGPT or Gemini. Conversation first, everything else second.
What Makes Alexa+ Different From ChatGPT?
Amazon claims 76% of what customers do with Alexa+ can’t be done on other AI assistants. That’s according to Daniel Rausch, VP of Alexa and Echo at Amazon.
The main difference? Alexa+ connects to your real life. Upload a photo of a recipe from grandma’s cookbook. Alexa+ digitises it, suggests ingredient substitutions based on what’s in your pantry, and adds missing items to your Amazon Fresh cart. Then it guides you through cooking on your Echo Show screen.
Alexa+ also integrates with third-party services. Book restaurant reservations through OpenTable. Schedule home repairs via Angi. Order an Uber. Book travel through Expedia. The assistant doesn’t just give you information; it takes action.
ChatGPT and Gemini excel at answering questions and generating content. Alexa+ aims to handle your to-do list and actually get things done.
Amazon Says Tens of Millions Use Alexa+ Already
Amazon shared some usage stats. Tens of millions of customers now have access to Alexa+ in early access mode. These users have two to three times more conversations with Alexa+ compared to the original Alexa.
Shopping increased three times. Recipe requests jumped five times. Smart home power users control their devices 50% more often with Alexa+ than they did before.
Rausch also addressed complaints about Alexa+ misfires that pop up on social media and forums. He says opt-out rates are in the low single digits. Around 97% of customers who try Alexa+ stick with it.
Alexa.com Puts Amazon’s AI Everywhere You Are
With over 600 million Alexa-enabled devices sold worldwide, Amazon already has a huge hardware footprint. But the company realised that to compete in the AI assistant race, Alexa needs to be accessible everywhere, not just at home.
Alexa.com brings the assistant to your work computer, your laptop at a coffee shop, or any device with a browser. The mobile app redesign makes it more accessible on the go. And your Echo speaker still works at home.
Context and preferences carry across all devices. Start a conversation on Alexa.com at work. Continue it on your phone during your commute. Finish it on your Echo Show when you get home. Everything syncs automatically.
The Strategy Behind Alexa+ Browser Launch
Launching Alexa.com signals Amazon’s shift in AI strategy. For years, Alexa lived exclusively in Echo speakers and the mobile app. Most people only used it for music, timers, and weather.
ChatGPT changed the game when it launched in late 2022. Suddenly, millions of people started typing conversations with an AI in their browser. Google responded with Gemini. Anthropic released Claude. Perplexity grew rapidly.
Amazon needed a browser presence to stay relevant. But instead of just copying ChatGPT, the company focused on practical family management features. Meal planning, grocery shopping, calendar coordination, document organisation, these are the hooks Amazon hopes will make Alexa+ indispensable.
The personal document upload feature is particularly strategic. If Amazon can become the place where families store and manage their schedules, school forms, medical records, and daily logistics, it creates serious lock-in. You won’t easily switch to another assistant if it means losing months or years of organised family data.
Privacy Questions Around Personal Document Uploads
Amazon asks users to trust Alexa+ with sensitive family information. That includes emails, calendar access, photos of documents, and personal schedules.
The company hasn’t detailed its data handling practices for uploaded documents in the announcement. Users should understand what Amazon does with this information, how long it’s stored, and who has access before uploading personal files to Alexa.com.
This is a bigger privacy ask than what ChatGPT or Gemini typically request. Those assistants primarily process text conversations that users type in real-time. Alexa+ wants persistent access to your digital life.
What’s Next for Alexa+ and Alexa.com?
Amazon says more capabilities and experiences are coming to Alexa+ and Alexa.com. The company didn’t specify what those features will be.
The assistant currently remains in early access. Amazon has been gradually rolling out access since the Alexa+ debut in February 2025. There’s still no announced timeline for a full public launch beyond early access.
Users interested in trying Alexa.com can join the waitlist at alexa.com by signing in with their Amazon account. Owners of newer Echo devices get priority access.
The launch represents Amazon’s most direct challenge yet to ChatGPT and Gemini. But instead of competing purely on conversational AI capability, Amazon bets on practical family management and smart home integration as the differentiating factors.
Whether that strategy works depends on whether families are willing to make Alexa+ the central hub for their daily logistics. The browser experience removes the hardware barrier. Now Amazon needs to convince people that the features are worth the privacy trade-offs.
