Amazon has made a significant change to its security features for Echo devices by implementing a price tag on what used to be a free service. The company has moved the smoke, carbon monoxide alarm detection, and glass break sound detection features of Alexa Guard to its new Emergency Assist service, which comes with a monthly cost of $6 or an annual fee of $59.
Despite this change, the ability of Alexa Guard to listen for intruders and household alarms while users are away will remain a standard free feature on Amazon Echo devices. However, it appears that Alexa Guard itself may eventually be phased out in favor of the paid Emergency Assist service.
Users of Alexa Guard were notified about these modifications via an email from Amazon. A Twitter user named automated_hous shared a copy of the email, which was first noticed by The Verge.
Amazon named the new service Alexa Emergency Assist, which aims to provide enhanced safety for families. Some of the Guard features, such as smoke and carbon monoxide alarm detection, will be accessible through Emergency Assist, while other functionalities like Away Lighting will be integrated into the general Alexa experience.
It seems that an increasing number of companies facing financial pressures are opting to move formerly free services and features behind a paywall or subscription model. This shift reflects a broader trend towards subscription services and recurring revenue streams. However, it does mean that consumers might accumulate a higher number of monthly service fees.
As a gesture, Amazon has decided to offer Emergency Assist for free to Ring Protect Pro customers who linked their Ring and Alexa accounts on or before September 20, 2024, until October 31, 2024.
On the Alexa Emergency Assist sign-up page, Amazon currently provides a $6 monthly subscription offer for all customers until January 8, 2024. After that date, the reduced price will only be available to Amazon Prime members. The cost of the subscription for non-members is not yet known. For Guard Plus customers, Alexa Emergency Assist will be available at $5 per month or $50 per year.
During their fall product launch event, Amazon introduced Alexa Emergency Assist, along with various new products such as the Echo Show 8, Echo Pop Kids, Fire HD 10 Kids, Echo Frames, two new Fire TV sticks, a Fire TV Soundbar, the Ero 7 Max, a floodlight version of Blink Outdoor 4 Camera, the Ring Stick Up Cam Pro, and the Echo Hub.
As of now, Amazon has not provided any comment on this matter.
