Amazon is rolling out a powerful set of Alexa+ upgrades — just in time for the holiday shopping crunch. The new features are designed to save you money, automate your purchases and help your household stay organized.
As a mom of three young kids, I appreciate that Alexa+ already builds on the classic Alexa experience with proactive, AI-powered tools. But this week’s update pushes it even further into true assistant territory. It can now monitor deals 24/7, complete purchases the moment prices drop, and even deliver personalized reminders based on who’s in the room.
Here’s a breakdown of everything that’s new — and how it could make everyday life easier for chaotic families like mine.
Alexa+ can now shop for you — and get the best deals
Forget waiting online for deals. Alexa+ can now help you find the best prices, tracks orders and automatically buys the items you've been waiting on. Alexa+ watches for price drops on items in your cart, wish lists or anything you tell it to monitor. For example:
“Let me know if the Dyson cordless vacuum drops below $300.”
Once the item hits your target price, Alexa+ will notify you immediately — no more refreshing pages or scanning deals yourself.
You can also set a price threshold for an item and Alexa+ will complete the purchase automatically using your default shipping and payment settings. That means if you’re tracking a $200 air purifier and the price dips to $99 at 3 a.m., Alexa+ will handle the checkout while you sleep.
Echo Show becomes your shopping hub
The Echo Show 15 and 21 are getting a new “Shopping Essentials” dashboard that turns your device into a full command center for household purchases. You’ll be able to see:
- Real-time package tracking
- Your recent orders
- Items you may want to reorder
- Your shopping list
- Saved deals and product suggestions
You can tap through for more details, add items to your cart or start checkout with voice or touch. A home-screen shopping widget is rolling out soon.
Add last-minute items to upcoming deliveries
If Alexa+ knows you have a package arriving soon, it can suggest items you might’ve forgotten — like batteries, snacks or lightbulbs — and add them to the shipment before it leaves the warehouse. This saves you from making a last-minute store run or placing another order.
For personalized gifts, just tell Alexa who you’re shopping for and the occasion, and it’ll generate curated gift ideas. These are visually grouped by category on Echo Show devices, making it easy to browse and get inspired.
Amazon says customers are now having deeper shopping conversations with Alexa — and completing three times more purchases directly from their devices.
Home management features rolling out
A second wave of updates focusing on family scheduling, reminders and home organization just rolled out on December 11. These upgrades help Alexa+ anticipate your needs and make day-to-day life run more smoothly.
With Alexa+, you can upload handwritten or saved recipes to create your own digital recipe library. Just snap a photo, send it to alexa@alexa.com or upload it through the app. Alexa+ will turn it into a clean, structured recipe card — including ingredients, steps and even handwritten notes.
You can ask Alexa to walk you through the recipe, add ingredients to your grocery list or remind you what to prep for dinner.
The updates also allow for reminders that adapt to who's in the room. Using Visual ID, Alexa+ can recognize different household members and deliver reminders tailored to each person. For example:
- My husband gets a reminder to switch the laundry to the dryer when he gets home
- My kids are prompted about chores and homework
- I get a heads-up about a dinner reservation when it’s time to leave
- It turns one shared device into a personalized assistant for the whole family
Smarter calendar that organizes your entire household
This one is a game-changer and a feature that I've been wanting for years. Alexa+ now supports a full-screen calendar on Echo Show with daily, weekly and monthly views, color-coded by family member. But it also goes further:
- It can extract dates and details from emails, invites and school flyers (my personal favorite!)
- It adds those events to your shared calendar automatically
- It offers daily summaries and helps avoid schedule conflicts
- It learns your preferred times for meetings, appointments and downtime
Final thoughts
While other AI assistants can help you research products or answer questions, Alexa+ has a unique advantage: it’s deeply integrated into your shopping, scheduling and home routines. These updates could prove to be more helpful than ever to help you manage your household.
As a family of five, I'm most interested to see how well the calendar management tools will work. We're constantly trying to juggle multiple schedules, calendars, and events, so being able to easily consolidate things into one easy-to-digest feed.
More from Tom's Guide
- The AI trick everyone overlooks — and it makes every prompt more powerful
- Disney just made AI history — $1B OpenAI deal brings 200+ characters to Sora
- The ‘no prompt’ rule makes ChatGPT give expert-level writing advice — here’s how it works
Follow Tom's Guide on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
