// WIRED US/UK — MOBILE & WEB
The New Alexa Tablets Feel Like a Blueprint for an Amazon Phone
Is Amazon making a smartphone? A Reuters report from earlier this year revealed details about a device codenamed Transformer under development, with Amazon's Alexa+ AI assistant as the focus of the experience.
With Amazon announcing a complete rebrand of its tablet line on Thursday—killing the cheap Fire Tablets and replacing them with premium Alexa Tablets that finally run Android with access to the Google Play Store—we now have a blueprint for what an Android-powered Amazon phone could look like.
Amazon's souped-up Alexa+ assistant is front and center on the tablets. There's a persistent “Ask Alexa” widget on the home screen that lets you call on the assistant to ask it questions—you can say “Alexa” to trigger it, too. But Alexa+ now finally has what Amazon calls On-Screen Intelligence. Like Google's Gemini on Android phones or Apple's Siri on iPhones, which can read your screen and answer contextual questions, Alexa now has the same functionality (if you opt in).
The Ask Alexa widget is accessible in the corner of the Alexa Tablet.
That can be for simple things like summarizing a web page, but it can be used for more complex tasks. Watching a YouTube video about a new product? Ask Alexa whether the product is on Amazon, and if so, add it to your Amazon shopping cart. Perusing an Infatuation article about new restaurants in your area? Ask Alexa to highlight the ones closest to your office.
Alexa also supports “live sessions,” just like Gemini Live or ChatGPT's Voice Mode—it lets you have a free-form back-and-forth conversation with the assistant. Maybe you're focused on a DIY project and want Alexa to spell out instructions slowly at your own pace. It also supports visual intelligence: Point the tablet's camera at anything, and Alexa can identify the object and offer helpful advice. Got a water leak? Point the camera and ask Alexa how to fix it.
These are completely new experiences for Alexa. Amazon's vice president of devices, Kevin Keith, tells WIRED the company “didn't really have the right product to be able to use” these capabilities, but that's now solved with its Android tablets.
But these features would fit right in on a smartphone, where they’d perhaps be even more useful. When I mentioned this to Keith, he laughed and said: “We have nothing to share on that. Interesting idea.”
Amazon notoriously tried to make a smartphone in 2014—the Fire Phone—a massive flop discontinued shortly after launch due to a limited app ecosystem, dismal sales, and an over-reliance on gimmicky features. (Even its designer recently said he was embarrassed by it.) That may partly be why Amazon is retiring the “Fire” branding and killing its budget tablets. People may forget the disaster and won't be reminded of the “Fire Phone” name when the company eventually introduces a new handset.
Alexa+ now features On-Screen Intelligence, allowing the assistant to read the screen to understand context.