Amazon Echo Show owners are reporting an uptick in advertisements on their smart displays.
The company's Echo Show smart displays have previously shown ads through the company's Shopping Lists feature, as well as advertising for Alexa skills. Additionally, Echo Shows may play audio ads when users listen to Amazon Music on Alexa.
However, reports on Reddit (examples here, here, and here) and from The Verge’s Jennifer Pattison Tuohy, who owns more than one Echo Show, suggest that Amazon has increased the amount of ads it shows on its smart displays' home screens. The Echo Show’s apparent increase in ads is pushing people to stop using or even return their Echo Shows.
The smart displays have also started showing ads for Alexa+, the new generative AI version of Amazon's Alexa voice assistant. Ads for the subscription-based Alexa+ are reportedly taking over Echo Show screens, even though the service is still in Early Access.
“This is getting ridiculous and I'm about to just toss the whole thing and move back to Google,” one Redditor said of the “full-volume” ads for Alexa+ on their Echo Show.
The Verge’s Tuohy reported seeing ads on one (but not all) of her Echo Shows for the first time this week and said ads sometimes show when the display is set to show personal photos. She reported seeing ads for “elderberry herbal supplements, Quest sports chips, and tabletop picture frames."
Users are unable to disable the home screen ads. When reached for comment, an Amazon spokesperson told Ars Technica:
Advertising is a small part of the experience, and it helps customers discover new content and products they may be interested in. If customers don’t like a suggestion, they can swipe to skip to the next screen card or directly provide feedback by tapping the Information icon or pressing the screen.
Amazon declined to comment on whether it has increased Echo Show ad loads.
Alexa resorts to ads
Amazon’s Devices business famously doesn't make money, so it’s not too surprising to see the company's smart displays resort to ads, something Amazon is making money on.
Expanding on its ads program for Alexa devices, which launched in 2023, Amazon ramped up efforts to sell customers’ Echo Show screen space to advertisers in July when it launched a program for showing home screen ads on devices using Alexa+. Amazon recently said it may also put ads into Alexa+ conversations.
According to Amazon, Echo Show home screen ads change based on how close someone is to the gadget:
When the customer is more than four feet away from their device, ads will display full-screen in rotation with other content such as weather, recipes, sports, and news. When the customer is close to their device (within four feet), ads will display in rotation in the first card on the home screen grid.
Panos Panay, head of Amazon’s Devices & Services business, acknowledged “the randomness” of some Alexa ads to The Verge’s Tuhoy. When asked how the company is working to improve the ad experience on Alexa devices, an Amazon spokesperson told Ars that it will "continue to evolve our advertising experiences based on customer feedback."
After Amazon's devices launch last month, we noted that Alexa’s survival hinges on users' tolerance for pricier Amazon devices. It seems people's tolerance for ads will also play a role.
Noleggio auto premium: Sixt resta il punto di riferimento