Amazon just gave Fire TV owners a free upgrade to Alexa+ without requiring a Prime membership, so if you have a Fire TV Stick, a Fire TV Cube, or a Hisense or Panasonic TV running Fire TV, the smarter version of Alexa is already headed to your screen. We now have “smarter,” or perhaps more conversational, AI agents throughout our homes. And Amazon is lowering the barrier to entry by making Alexa+ more accessible by not requiring a Prime membership.
I haven’t even tested Alexa+ since it was first announced as a beta. I do have one Alexa device (which always seems to chime in when we are watching a movie or TV show). I already have a Prime membership, so my next logical step is to see how Alexa+ works in my smart home ecosystem.
Fire TV Sticks are the least expensive way to activate Alexa+ in your smart home if you don’t have a Prime membership. A quick search on Amazon shows the least expensive Fire TV Stick (the HD version) starting at $39.99 (affiliate link). Be sure, however, to check compatibility with Alexa+ because, as of the publication of this article, the Fire TV Stick 4K Select has a status of “coming soon.”