Amazon’s Latest ‘Upgrade’ is a Betrayal to Its Most Loyal Users
The Thinking Home is an intelligent environment built on a foundation of reliability, privacy, and user control to serve you, not a profit making corporation. The core philosophy I champion, Intelligent Sovereignty, empowers you, the homeowner, to be the ultimate authority over your technology. It is a direct response to the fragile, cloud-dependent model sold by Big Tech, a model whose weaknesses have just been laid bare by Amazon in a stunning real-world display of corporate arrogance.
Amazon’s next-generation Alexa+ recent rollout is not just a buggy software update; it is a cautionary tale and a textbook example of the dangers I have been warning against. It demonstrates, in real-time, the profound risks of entrusting the core functionality of your home to a system you do not control. For its most loyal users, the very people who built their smart homes around the Alexa ecosystem, this “upgrade” has been a betrayal. It transforms reliable homes into frustrating, disconnected collections of gadgets.
Seductive Promise vs. Harsh Reality
Amazon launched Alexa+ with significant fanfare, promising a revolutionary conversational AI. The marketing vision was seductive: an assistant that could handle complex, multi-part requests, engage in natural conversation, and act as an “agent” to complete real-world tasks. It was sold as a seamless, proactive assistant that would “create a much smarter and more capable home experience” (Panay, 2025).
For the established smart home users who form Alexa’s most dedicated base, the reality has been a nightmare. The promise of a smarter future has come at the cost of a functional present. User-generated reports from Reddit, Amazon’s own forums, and other smart home communities paint a picture of widespread system failure. A user on Amazon’s own forum described the situation with pointed clarity:
“The ‘Update to Alexa Plus’ breaks Smart Home Device Support for Groups with Switches… My TP-Link Kasa smart switches are no longer being controlled by Alexa when in a group with lights… It is not a skill issue as I have disabled and re-enabled the skill multiple times. The switches work fine on their own, but not in a group.” (Source: Amazon Forum User “Beltman”)
This is not a minor glitch. This is a catastrophic failure of a core smart home function. A command as simple and essential as “Alexa, Turn Kitchen On,” which for years has reliably controlled a mix of bulbs and switches, is now fundamentally broken. The new AI, in its infinite wisdom, now only activates the light bulbs, completely ignoring the switches within the same group. This suggests a deep architectural flaw; the new generative AI brain appears unable to parse commands for the older, structured ecosystem of skills.
The damage is not limited to one brand or function. The forums are littered with reports of broken integrations and skills for major companies. One user on Reddit’s r/alexa forum lamented the broader chaos:
“Samsung and Roku skills no longer work. In this household that was about 50% of Alexa interactions.” (Source: Reddit User “hylas1”)
Even the most basic, time-based commands have been rendered useless, as another user discovered:
“Previously I could say Alexa turn on towel warmer for one hour… Now she doesn’t reply and just turns it on and it stays on forever unless I manually turn it off or tell her to turn it off.” (Source: Reddit User “mjonis”)
The failures extend to core appliance control, a feature many users rely on for daily convenience. “My Panasonic Microwave no longer takes commands,” reported one user, a sentiment echoed by another who stated, “Same with GE ovens – response is ‘I can’t control cooking appliances yet.'” (Source: Reddit Users “radarchief” & “bullfrog23414”). These are not the teething problems of a new product; this is the systemic, predictable failure of cloud-dependent architecture. When the “brain” of your home resides on a corporate server hundreds of miles away, its functionality can be altered, degraded, or destroyed at any moment by a remote software update pushed without your consent. This is the very definition of the Ecosystem Tax—a hidden price paid not in dollars, but in the loss of reliability and control.
Becoming Unwilling Beta Testers
Perhaps the most egregious aspect of this rollout is Amazon’s strategy. The company released Alexa+ in what is effectively an “early access” state, turning its most loyal customers into unwilling, unwitting, and unpaid beta testers. They pushed an unfinished product that could, and did, break the foundational elements of users’ homes, all without adequate warning of the potential for losing existing capabilities. As one user aptly put it, “Amazon should have warned that our everyday commands may no longer be supported.” (Source: Reddit User “Data_Life”).
This is a profound violation of trust. A home is a sanctuary. The systems within it, especially those that provide basic functions like lighting, must be dependable. When a company can unilaterally disable core features that people rely on daily, it demonstrates a stunning disregard for user experience. This is not innovation; it is betrayal!
This situation perfectly illustrates the cautionary tales I have shared about companies like Insteon, Revolv, and Wink. We have seen this before: a corporation, in pursuit of a new business model or strategic pivot, simply turns off the servers, transforming millions of dollars of user-owned hardware into e-waste. While Amazon hasn’t (yet) bricked its devices, it has bricked their functionality. The outcome for the user is the same: a system that no longer works as it did when first purchased. Amazon’s update has reinforced the Convenience Paradox, where technology intended to simplify life only adds complexity and frustration.
The Antidote is a System You Truly Own
The Alexa+ debacle is not an argument against smart homes. It is a powerful, real-world argument for the right kind of smart home and is a stark validation of the entire philosophy of The Thinking Home.
Consider how this scenario plays out in a system built on Local Control:
- An update to a cloud-based voice assistant cannot break your core lighting. In a locally controlled system using a hub like Home Assistant, the logic for a command like “Turn Kitchen On” resides on a device inside your own walls. The automation that groups your lights and switches is managed by you. It is architecturally immune to a botched cloud update. A Zigbee binding, for example, links a switch directly to a bulb at the hardware level, ensuring it will work flawlessly even if your hub is completely offline.
- You decide when and if to update. Intelligent Sovereignty means you are in command. You have the choice to read the release notes, evaluate the risks, and decide for yourself whether to adopt a new feature, rather than having it implemented without your consent.
- Reliability is the default. A local system is inherently faster and more reliable because commands travel a few feet over your local network, not across the internet and back. It functions perfectly whether your internet is working or not.
The current smart home market, projected to reach nearly forty-billion dollars in installation services alone in 2025, is at a critical juncture. Consumers are realizing that the “free” services offered by giants like Amazon and Google come at a steep price: their privacy, their reliability, and ultimately, their control. A 2024 study by Surfshark found that Amazon’s Alexa is the most data-hungry smart home app, collecting 28 of 32 possible data points. When a company’s business model relies on data collection, as Amazon’s does, you are the product.
The Alexa+ rollout is a wakeup call. It is a clear signal that the convenience of a cloud-dependent ecosystem is a fragile illusion that fails more often than not. The only way to build a truly smart, secure, and reliable home—a true Thinking Home—is to build it on a foundation you own and control. Amazon’s Alexa+ is simply the final, most persuasive piece of evidence that the journey to Sovereignty is both worthwhile and necessary.
Cited Works
- Panay, P. (2025, February 26). Get ready for a more personal, intelligent, and conversational Alexa. About Amazon. https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/devices/new-alexa-generative-artificial-intelligence
- Amazon Forum. (2025, June 9). “Update to alexa plus breaks smart home device support for groups with switches”. Retrieved August 14, 2025, https://www.amazonforum.com/s/question/0D5Kf00003VLEGXKA5/update-to-alexa-plus-breaks-smart-home-device-support-for-groups-with-switches
- Reddit. (2025, June 9). “Smart home users beware of ‘Alexa’”. Retrieved Auguust 14, 2024, https://www.reddit.com/r/alexa/comments/1lupol4/smart_home_users_beware_of_alexa/