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UPDATE 1/26: Alexa Guard is officially dead, and Amazon is moving features behind a paywall. The smoke and CO alarm sound detection is now available to Alexa Emergency Assist subscribers for $5.99 per month or $59 per year. Glass break sound detection will be added “soon,” Amazon said in a Friday email to Alexa Guard users.That $5.99/$59 rate is currently open to everyone. But after Jan. 31, 2024, it will only be available to Prime members. Amazon hasn’t said how much it’ll cost for non-Prime members after that.Original Story 9/25/23:If you own an Amazon Echo and use Alexa Guard, we have some bad news. In a blog entitled “18 cool new features coming to Alexa,” the company announced it’s discontinuing Alexa Guard. Its two most well-known free features—the ability to listen for smoke and carbon monoxide detectors or the sound of glass breaking—will soon require a $5.99-per-month subscription to the newly announced Alexa Emergency Assist.Alexa Guard was pretty impressive. Utilizing Echo speakers and displays around your home, Guard turned your smart devices into a DIY security system. It had home and away capabilities, and could turn lights on and off to make it appear as though you were home. With Alexa Guard Plus for $4.99 a month ($49 a year), it could listen for general activity sounds, create fake dog barking to scare away would-be intruders, or sound a siren if detected activity in your home.In an email that went out to customers today: Amazon says:Dear Alexa Guard customer,We recently announced plans to discontinue Alexa Guard and launch Alexa Emergency Assist, a new service that helps you keep your family safe. Some Guard features, including Smoke and CO alarm detection, will be available as part of Emergency Assist for $5.99/month or $59/year (visit amazon.com/alexaemergencyassist for up to date pricing details). Other Guard features, including Away Lighting, will now be available as part of your general Alexa experience.Alexa Emergency Assist was announced at Amazon’s fall event this week, but execs didn’t specify that Guard would be going away. On stage, they said only that Emergency Assist would be “building on Alexa Guard.”The good news is that basic features like Home and Away and “Away Lighting” are still free to use. If you tie your Alexa devices into a home security system, it’s good to know you won’t have to pay extra to keep those capabilities. But some of the more useful features that were once free won’t be anymore.
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On its blog, Amazon also explains what will happen to Alexa Guard subscribers, and it sounds like a discount: “New US customers can subscribe to Alexa Emergency Assist for $5.99 per month or $59 per year. Guard Plus customers will instead get access to Alexa Emergency Assist for $4.99 per month or $49.99 per year.”But as usual, the devil is in the details. If you head to the Alexa Emergency Assist subscription page, it explains this $5.99 offer is only for a limited time. After January 8, 2024, “new subscriptions at $5.99/month (plus applicable tax) will only be available to Amazon Prime members.” An Amazon spokesperson tells us you don’t need to be a Prime member to use Alexa Emergency Assist, but we don’t yet know how much it’ll cost for non-Prime members in 2024. “We will confirm non-Prime customer pricing later this year,” the spokesperson says.
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