Amazon is killing one of Alexa’s most useful features next week

Amazon’s Alexa is an incredibly capable virtual assistant. In fact, it has such a wide range of features that there’s a good chance you aren’t fully aware of what all Alexa can do. For example, did you know that Alexa can access your email? You can link your email account to Alexa and have it read messages out loud. At least, you can for a few more days, because Amazon is retiring the feature next week. On Monday, November 8th, Amazon will unlink all email accounts from Alexa.

Amazon Alexa loses access to email accounts

As noted by TechHive, users on Reddit and Twitter received emails informing them of the change.

“We’re writing to inform you that beginning on November 8th, 2021, email access will no longer be supported for Alexa customers,” Amazon explained to customers in an email blast. “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.”

The email goes on to note that “related email features” will be impacted as well. This includes email routines and email notifications. Also, Alexa will not be able to track third-party packages. Previously, with access to your email, Alexa could scan your inbox for shipment notifications.

Amazon first rolled out the email-reading feature back in 2018. After linking an email account, users could read, delete, archive, and reply to messages with voice commands. Going forward, anyone who was using this feature is going to have to go back to using phones and computers. The good news is that you can still link your calendar to Alexa.

Why is Amazon killing this feature?

Here’s what Amazon told TechHive about the decision to remove Alexa’s access to email accounts:

We regularly evaluate the features and experiences available to customers and prioritize those that make customers’ lives easier and allow them to get the most of our their Alexa experience. As with everything we do, we will continue to evolve the experience based on customer feedback.

In all likelihood, you had never used this feature in the first place. There are certainly use cases — one Redditor said their elderly mother found the feature helpful — but Amazon wouldn’t kill a widely-used feature. Unsurprisingly, many people didn’t know the feature existed. Others questioned why anyone would willingly give Amazon access to their email accounts in the first place.