Amazon has officially expanded its AI assistant, Alexa+, beyond the company’s own hardware. Along with the announcement of its Lifestyle Ultra speakers, Bost has also announced that Alexa+ is coming to its lineup of speakers and soundbars across the United States.
This is a first for any non-Amazon audio brand. What’s even more interesting for me is that the rollout covers both new and existing Bose devices.
What can Alexa+ actually do on a Bose speaker?
Quite a lot, actually. It can do everything it has been doing on Amazon’s first-party lineup of smart speakers. That includes understanding natural language conversations, which unlocks multiple use cases.
For instance, Alexa+ on Bose speakers can create playlists by mood, hunt half-remembered songs based on the only memory you have about them, manage other smart home speakers or devices, make dinner reservations, learn about recipes, and even reorder household staples from Amazon.
Alexa+ can do all of that based on voice commands, without you having to fiddle around on your smartphone. Now, here’s the slightly disappointing part. Amazon’s Alexa+ is free for all Prime members. Otherwise, it costs $19.99 per month.
Which Bose devices are getting the upgrade?
Apart from the newly-launched Lifestyle Ultra speakers, Alexa+ is available across a wide range of Bose products that are already in the market. However, you’d have to enable it via Amazon’s Alexa page.
These include the Bose Smart Soundbar (models 300, 600, 900), Portable Smart Speaker, Home Speaker (models 300, 350, 500), Soundbar (models 500, 550, 700), and Music Amplifier. While the Lifestyle lineup will have access to the AI assistant starting May 15, Alexa+ is already live on all the other compatible speakers.
To me, it looks like Amazon is choosing platform-over-hardware to increase its footprint, rather than keeping the AI assistant locked in Echo devices. This would surely help the company compete with Google’s Gemini and Apple’s Siri over a broader device ecosystem.