Amazon Is Shutting Down Alexa Guard and Paywalling Its Features

Amazon is discontinuing Alexa Guard in favor of Emergency Assist, a nearly identical service that was announced at the company's annual hardware event last week. If you paid $6 a month for Alexa Guard, this isn't a big deal, as Emergency Assist costs the same price. But if you're one of the many people who enjoyed the free version of Alexa Guard, your Echo devices will no longer alert you to potential break-ins or house fires.

Alexa Guard launched in 2019 as both a free and paid service. Free users got some useful functionality, including smoke alarm and broken glass detection — Echo speakers could listen for these sounds while you were away from home. These free features are now migrating to Emergency Assist, which is only available as a paid service. Emergency Assist is also inheriting Alexa Guard's premium features, including a 24/7 emergency service hotline and the ability to play siren noises during a potential break-in.

It seems that the Emergency Assist program will only make Amazon's home security technology more expensive. Going forward, you must pay $6 a month (or $60 annually) for basic features like smoke alarm detection. Amazon also says that this $6 pricing will be exclusive to Prime Members after January 8th of next year, meaning that non-Prime members will be forced to pay extra. And, although Emergency Assist is currently bundled with Ring Protect Pro (just as Alexa Guard was), Protect Pro customers will lose access to the Emergency Assist service after October 31st, 2024.

Let's do a bit of math. By the end of next year, those who want a fully-fledged Amazon security system must pay $20 a month (or $200 annually) for Ring Protect Pro and $6 a month (or $60 annually) for Emergency Assist. Ignoring the cost of Echo and Ring hardware, that works out to $26 each month or $260 a year if you make annual payments.

While $26 a month is still extremely cheap when compared to a professional home security service, it's a steep price hike for customers who are already entrenched in the Amazon ecosystem. Bear in mind that many of these customers are also Prime members — if you're subscribed to Prime, Emergency Assist, Ring Protect Pro, you'll pay Amazon nearly $500 in subscription fees each year after 2024 (though you'll save about $100 if you pay annually).

To Amazon's credit, some Alexa Guard features will remain free for all Alexa users. You can still use Away Lighting to make it look like someone's home while you're on vacation. Amazon will also let you use Home and Away modes to control the Ring Alarm and other accessories (though, to reiterate, the Away mode's audio-detection features now require an Emergency Assist subscription).

Note that Amazon is also converting Prime Video to an ad-supported service in 2024. Prime Video will still require a Prime membership, but it'll have commercials. Those who want to stream without ads must pay an extra $3 each month. Amazon Prime won't get a price hike next year — thank goodness — but it feels like everything else is getting more expensive.

Source: @automated_hous via The Verge