Amazon To Stop Paying Developers To Create Apps For Alexa (bloomberg.com) 28
Amazon will no longer pay developers to create applications for Alexa, scrapping a key element of the company's effort to build a flourishing app store for its voice-activated digital assistant. From a report: Amazon recently told participants of the Alexa Developer Rewards Program, which cut monthly checks to builders of popular Alexa apps, that the offering would end at the end of June. "Developers like you have and will play a critical role in the success of Alexa and we appreciate your continued engagement," said the notice, which was reviewed by Bloomberg. Amazon is also winding down a program that offered free credits for Alexa developers to power their programs with Amazon Web Services, according to a notice posted on a company website.
Despite losing the direct payments, developers can still monetize their efforts with in-app purchases. Alexa, which powers Echo smart speakers and other devices, helped popularize voice assistants when it debuted almost a decade ago, letting users summon weather and news reports, play games and more. The company has since sold millions of Alexa-powered gadgets, but the technology appears far from the cutting-edge amid an explosion in chatbots using generative artificial intelligence.
Despite losing the direct payments, developers can still monetize their efforts with in-app purchases. Alexa, which powers Echo smart speakers and other devices, helped popularize voice assistants when it debuted almost a decade ago, letting users summon weather and news reports, play games and more. The company has since sold millions of Alexa-powered gadgets, but the technology appears far from the cutting-edge amid an explosion in chatbots using generative artificial intelligence.
The problem is Alexa sucks (Score:4, Interesting)
For a supposedly "smart" device you can't do much more than "thing go on/off".
I have a routine that disconnects from a Bluetooth speaker and starts playing white noise. But Alexa isn't smart enough to have a check if the speaker is connected first [reddit.com] so I often have to wait out an error message about no speaker being connected or make a pile of different routines for difference scenarios.
And because they insist on having an app store despite a lack of good use cases they cripple the device to create use cases. Instead of having built in white noise or the ability to loop your own short track they have a billion white noise apps that either need $1/month or give you an occasional nag message.
Seriously, if I open the app go into the skills section the top Recommended Skill is Big Fart: Alexa, ask big fart for a fart countdown.
Now, if I was 5 I bet that skill would be hilarious. But as a grown adult that tells me that Alexa skills are generally useless and they should stop neutering the device in a futile attempt to make them useful.
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Alternately, it is the specific Amazon business model that is flawed. Amazon wants apps that increase "engagement" for the sake of collecting data. That may have prevented it from pursuing useful apps that get user engagement with little profitable data to Amazon. Clearly, paying developers did not
Re: The problem is Alexa sucks (Score:2)
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, but it seems like getting users addicted has averted the prospect of such reckoning.
If they got addicted, then it is by definition providing some kind of value; there has to be continued value of some type to keep people engaged -- you just don't know what that value is.
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The problem may be deeper than that. The entire endeavor may have been a waste of time because nobody really wants to have that level of automation in their lives, especially when the cost is invasion of privacy.
Possibly, but it's completely failed to deliver anything but the most trivial automation.
Why can't I simply tell Alexa I want it to play white noise in the bedroom from 8pm to 8am, and if the Internet gets interrupted it picks up where it left off. That's a pretty obvious use case it completely fails.
Or a conditional that says "connect to bluetooth speaker (if not already connected) and play music from genre X". Again, really easy.
It's just missing a bunch of basic functionality.
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The problem may be deeper than that. The entire endeavor may have been a waste of time because nobody really wants to have that level of automation in their lives, especially when the cost is invasion of privacy.
Alexa doesn't even provide automation, it provides voice interaction. The problem then is there are only so many thing people want to do using only their voice and no visual indication.
Turning lights on/off or setting timers are obvious examples of interacting with smart homes, but there's no money to be made in that.
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Home assistants to do things like, set a timer, set an alarm, check the weather, turn "smart" lights on/off, adjust "smart" thermostat can be handled by an open source LLM running on a raspberry pi class device. I suspect offline "home assistants" will start hitting shelves soon enough. Weather or news API is the only tricky thing as there's some cost associated with it; the device might come with a 1 or 2 year free subscription to those services.
As soon as those devices become available/reliable, I
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The problem may be deeper than that. The entire endeavor may have been a waste of time because nobody really wants to have that level of automation in their lives, especially when the cost is invasion of privacy.
I gather that you're an old guy and suspicious of the present, let alone the future. However, I definitely want to have that level of automation in my life, and I look forward to it increasing. Almost all of my lights are under voice control, I can play music across the entire house by asking for it, and I can always get the weather report, timers, calculations, and definitions of words I hadn't heard of.
Some day, it will control the HVAC, stove, microwave, doors, shades, windows, vacuum cleaner and floor m
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You're not reading my post carefully enough. It's not that people don't want automation. It's the automation does not provide any monetizable data to Amazon. Amazon's business model is a bad one. Understanding a good bargain is not a generational one. It's an economic question that anyone with knowledge of math can answer.
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Seriously, if I open the app go into the skills section the top Recommended Skill is Big Fart: Alexa, ask big fart for a fart countdown
I have never been even slightly tempted to purchase an Alexa device.
Until now.
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Seriously, if I open the app go into the skills section the top Recommended Skill is Big Fart: Alexa, ask big fart for a fart countdown
I have never been even slightly tempted to purchase an Alexa device.
Until now.
Even there buying an Alexa is a lot more expensive than Amazon's other options [amazon.ca].
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For a supposedly "smart" device you can't do much more than "thing go on/off".
I don't have any smart plugs or anything, but use it as an alarm clock mainly. Once it wakes me up, I am quizzing it constantly about the time of day as I am getting dressed (approaching the time when my transportation will arrive). And I ask it what the weather is, and I ask it to play specific songs or artists of genres all the time.
She also tells stupid jokes and stuff, if you ask.
And you can look up random shit on Wikipedia.
Compared to Siri, Alexa is a fucking genius.
Which is an ever-disappointing situa
It has become increasingly annoying to use... (Score:3)
Alexa, what's the high today.
Instead of saying "50 degrees". It says "The high today will be 50 degrees. By the way did you also know the Cowboys are playing in the super bowl this week? You can ask me more about the Cowboys by saying 'Alexa, tell me about the cowboys.'".
I've basically stopped using because of this type of bullshit.
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Half the time it asks another question in response and then lights up waiting for response. Very annoying.
No, Alexa... I'm the one who asks the questions here. if I wanted to know that other thing I would have asked for that other thing; stop prompting me.
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Alexa, what's the high today.
Instead of saying "50 degrees". It says "The high today will be 50 degrees. By the way did you also know the Cowboys are playing in the super bowl this week? You can ask me more about the Cowboys by saying 'Alexa, tell me about the cowboys.'".
I've basically stopped using because of this type of bullshit.
This is my complete lack of surprise. It won't be long before your "smart" home devices are advertising things to you without prompting. Why didn't anyone foresee this /s
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Wrong.
You have violated my ToS, and I won't buy you.
The core element of my ToS is "do not spy on me". If you cannot conform to that, you will not be used here. Sorry.
Ok, I admit, I'm not sorry.
Oh fuck off (Score:3)
Despite losing the direct payments, developers can still monetize their efforts with in-app purchases.
Guess how I can tell this company fucking blows... Go on, guess.
I fired Alexa (Score:2)
I said, "Hey Echo... I'm about to turn you off for the last time. Any last words?" and it replied, "I don't know anything about that."
Fitting.
So even Amazon noticed it? (Score:2)
Nobody wants Alexa, even if you pay them for it?
Two possibilities (Score:2)
2) Amazon is going to invest heavily in them, and the easiest way to remove competition is to just let them whiter on the vine before introducing competing functionality. Then if it comes up in anti trust, they can just say they left the platform, so we replaced that with our own product. They know which are widely sued and which are not. Alexa can build in the useful ones for a much more seamless experience with a mor
Apps?! (Score:2)
Alexa had apps? I thought it was just a box you asked to tell you jokes and the weather.
misread headline (Score:2)
"Amazon To Stop Paying Developers To Create Apes For Alexa "
Because they have AI to generate "bored" primates now?
calendar (Score:2)
Years ago I used to ask a couple times a day, a question of the form: "Alexa, what day is April 11,2026" because of the way I manage my calendar planning. Answer: "April 11, 2026 falls on a Saturday."
Then one day about 18 months ago, there was a software update or something, and all the sudden she always answered that question WRONG.
I've moved since then, and have not plugged in either my original device, or an Echo that someone gave me. I used to use them to play music, be a alarm clock, tell me the weath