Amazon’s genius new Alexa+ has MEMORIES & knows everything about you – and there’s a way to totally skip £20 monthly fee

A BRAINY supercharged version of Amazon Alexa that knows everything about you and even has MEMORIES has launched in the UK.

The new Alexa+ talks naturally like a human – eliminating so-called ‘Alexa speak’ – and can even book tables at restaurants for you.

Alexa+ has already been available in the US for about a year, but it’s finally landed on UK devices for the first time.

And it means you’ll be able to speak to the virtual assistant in natural language and have her do extremely complicated tasks like never before.

Amazon revealed that Brits have interacted with Alexa “more than 110 billion times” since 2023.

And speaking at the launch event of Alexa+, Amazon’s Daniel Rausch said that over half of UK households now have an Alexa-enabled device.

“More people in the UK have an Alexa-enabled device than start their day with a cup of tea,” said Daniel, Amazon’s VP of Alexa and Echo.

“Here in the UK, that’s amazing. And just like tea, Alexa has become a part of British life.”

Amazon first unveiled Alexa+ back in February 2025 at a special press event in New York City.

The upgraded voice assistant was described as a “next-generation Alexa” that could talk like a human.

And it would interact with your smart home gadgets, mobile devices, people you’re connected to, and apps.

At the time, Amazon’s Panos Panay described Alexa+ as a conductor of an orchestra that “knows almost every instrument in your life”.

Sadly, the initial launch was limited to the US with a $19.99-a-month fee, leaving Brits unable to access the souped-up service.

Now Brits can also get access to the service for £19.99 a month too.

But a far cheaper option is simply snapping up Amazon Prime for £8.99 a month, which includes Alexa+ as standard.

That means millions of Brits will have the chance to bag the ultra-brainy AI helper.

“We aim to build the world’s best personal AI assistant,” Rausch told media, including The Sun, at the event.

“We have been limited at times by the technology available to us, but that’s not true any more. With generative AI we can accelerate towards that vision.”

The upgraded Alexa+ is able to book restaurants for you, as well as create recipes and set timers automatically. It can remember your dietary preferences, the football teams you like, and the actors that you most enjoy watching in movies.

“The more you use Alexa, the more she knows you. There’s not really one Alexa, she’s your Alexa. She has memory, she knows your preference,” Rausch said.

“You can say order my usual. No restaurant names, no address. Alexa+ gets things done start to finish.”

It can find gifts, order them with gift-wrapping and ship them to someone.

And it’ll remember your preferences on food, movies, and interests.

So if someone at home hates mushrooms and you ask for a family recipe, it’ll avoid the ingredient.

It can now understand if you stumble over your words or change your mind mid-sentence.

“You don’t have to say Alexa every time, just speak naturally, it just works. We’ve eliminated that ‘Alexa speak’,” Rausch explained.

And you can set it to manage your smart home so that it has control over lighting or heating.

Amazon owns Ring, so Alexa+ can also tap into your video doorbell footage.

So you could use Alexa+ to see if anyone had taken the dog for a walk.

Amazon Alexa+ is rolling out from today in Early Access.

That means you’ll be able to get it by purchasing a new eligible Echo device.

Eligible gadgets include the new:

• Echo Show 8
• Echo Show 11
• Echo Dot Max
• Echo Studio

During this Early Access period, Alexa+ is free – but will later switch to a £19.99 plan unless you have Prime.

Amazon says it “plans to invite hundreds of thousands of customers in the coming weeks”.

EARLY ALEXA

The original Amazon Alexa dates back more than a decade.

This nifty virtual assistant was originally based on a Polish speech-synthesising system called Ivona.

Amazon snapped up the tech in 2013, laying the foundations for what would become Alexa.

And this early tech was actually inspired by the AI system HAL from sci-fi movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Then on November 6, 2014, Amazon announced Alexa to the world.

And it launched alongside the original Echo speaker, which was the main way to access the Alexa service.

Now you can Alexa on hundreds of devices, including Echo speakers, Fire TVs, phones and computers.

But Alexa faces stiff competition from other AI rivals.

Google’s Gemini service (formerly Assistant) works in a similar way, and OpenAI’s ChatGPT also serves up voice chat.

And Apple is still working on releasing an upgraded version of Siri that is meant to be even smarter.