Amazon opens Alexa.com in Spain to use Alexa+ from the browser, for now in early access
IA en un minuto newsroom · Editor: Jon Elgezabal
In 30 seconds
Alexa.com brings Alexa+ to any browser in Spain, with typing and on-screen controls on top of voice. Lights, cameras or the thermostat can be handled from that window, and appointments found in an email or an image go into the calendar. Only people in Early Access with an Echo or another compatible device can get in; later it will reach all Prime customers.
Amazon has opened Alexa.com in Spain, a website for using its assistant in the browser.
The page gives access to Alexa+, the generative AI version of the assistant that the company launched in the middle of the year, from a computer, phone or tablet. Until now, Alexa+ could only be talked to; on the website it can also be typed to and handled with on-screen controls. The same conversation window controls the connected home, for example to switch on lights, look at the security cameras or change the thermostat. It also picks out appointments from documents, emails or images and puts them in the calendar, which an Echo Show screen then displays.
For now, only people signed up to the Alexa+ Early Access programme in Spain can get in, and that requires a compatible device: one of the new Echo range (Echo Show 11, Echo Studio, Echo Dot or Echo Time), one of the new Alexa tablets or a Fire TV. Anyone who already has one can request access on the official website. When that phase ends, Alexa+ will open up to all Prime customers, Amazon's subscription.
El Español sees that integration with the Amazon platform as what sets Alexa.com apart from ChatGPT or Gemini.
Why it matters · analysis and opinion
Moving from a speaker to a browser window changes the kind of use. Typing makes it possible to ask for longer things, paste a document or read the answer calmly, something voice does badly, and it brings Alexa closer to the way people already work with other assistants. Amazon's strength is not the model but what sits behind it: the connected home, the calendar and the store. The brake, for now, is the way in: requiring one of the brand's devices leaves out anyone who does not own one and turns the website into an add-on to the Echo rather than a direct rival. Whether it really competes will only be clear once it opens to all Prime customers and it shows what it offers without a speaker.
Source: El Español · Written with the help of AI: how we make the news
