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Amazon’s Alexa Together wants to help you care for family remotely

Amazon’s Alexa Together wants to help you care for family remotely

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It’s a paid replacement for Care Hub

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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Amazon is announcing a new subscription service called Alexa Together today during its invite-only fall hardware event. The company’s new $19.99 per month service offers the same features as the free Alexa Care Hub with new additions. Amazon plans to eventually replace its existing tools for caring for family members remotely with Alexa Together in 2022.

Like Care Hub, Alexa Together can notify you when a family member uses their Alexa device, offer a feed of interactions they had with the assistant throughout the day, and function as a quick way to get a hold of each other in the case of an emergency. Alexa Together adds new emergency features like hands-free access to an “urgent response emergency helpline” and compatibility with fall detection devices from ATS and Vayyar.

Amazon’s elder care features are no longer free

If an Alexa device owner enables Remote Assist, caregivers with access to Alexa Together will have the optional ability to set reminders, manage shopping lists, and set up music services without having to access an Alexa device in person. Amazon also says it’ll expand the number of accounts that can manage Alexa Together next year.

These features are a solid expansion of what Care Hub was already capable of, making the service more than just a tool for elderly family members, but anyone who could benefit from extra caregiving help. Alexa Together costs $19.99 per month, and Amazon says new customers will get a six-month free trial to Alexa Together. Former Care Hub users will get a whole year for free.

Alongside today’s announcement, Amazon also introduced new updates to its line of Ring alarms and doorbells and an even larger wall-mounted version of its Alexa with a screen, the Echo Show 15.

Alexa Together will be available later this year for $19.99 per month.

Update September 28th, 2:30PM ET: Clarified the new features of Alexa Together.