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Alexa Feature to Disappear

November 4, 2021

Alexa is everywhere. You may have a separate Echo device or Alexa may be built-in to some other device such as your smart thermostat. Alexa is an incredibly useful digital assistant with a boatload of features. On occasion, we use it to stream satellite music on demand. Despite all the great things Alexa can do, it will lose a useful feature next week. BGR posted that Alexa will no longer be able to access your email.

An email from Amazon stated, “We’re writing to inform you that beginning on November 8th, 2021, email access will no longer be supported for Alexa customers. This means you will no longer be able to link your Gmail or Microsoft email account with Alexa to browse or manage your email, and any linked email account(s) will automatically be unlinked.”

I can see where access to your email is a useful feature, especially for those technically challenged or visually impaired. When your email is linked to Alexa, you could read, delete, archive, and reply to messages with voice commands. Perhaps the linked email feature is not heavily used, which is why Amazon is removing the feature. Absent the reasons previously mentioned, one has to wonder if giving Amazon access to your email is a good idea to begin with.

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