Amazon's Alexa for Shopping agent now takes orders by text
Amazon is letting invited US customers text its AI shopping agent to find products, place orders and track prices, with sponsored items appearing in replies.
SUMO· the number puzzle
Dialo· learn languages by speaking
ediviewer· read EDI files like documents
giftdetect· the right gift in minutesAmazon is letting shoppers text its AI shopping agent, Alexa for Shopping, which can search for products, compare them and place orders, the company said on Friday. The feature starts with a small group of invited US customers, and millions more are due to get access in the coming weeks.
Customers who opt in get a contact called "Alexa Shopping." They can text a request, such as needing more dog food, or send a photo of a recipe or an outfit, and the agent replies with options. It buys with the customer's approval, or automatically once a price reaches a target the customer has set.
The agent can also track price drops, reorder past purchases and check on packages. According to Amazon, a conversation begun by text carries over to its app, website and Alexa devices. "Now with Alexa for Shopping, your personal shopping agent is just a text away," said Rajiv Mehta, Amazon's vice president of conversational shopping.
A new place for ads
The text thread is also a new advertising surface. Sponsored products can appear among the options the agent sends, though Amazon is not charging advertisers for them yet. Purchases the agent completes on its own carry no ads. Advertising brought Amazon more than $68 billion in 2025.
Competition moves to messaging
Amazon launched Alexa for Shopping in May and says more than 400 million customers used it over the past year. In September, the company blocked Meta's Muse agent from shopping on its site. Last week, chief executive Andy Jassy said he expects Alexa for Shopping to become the main agent people use to buy from Amazon.
Rivals are also moving into messaging. OpenAI added texting to Dot, its personal agent, last month, and DoorDash began taking orders by text in September.
Apps worth a look
SUMO: the number puzzleTap the right tiles, add them up, hit the target. Easy to learn, hard to master. Free, for all ages.
Dialo: learn languages by speakingTalk to an AI conversation partner; every sentence comes back corrected and explained in your language. 9 languages, A1 to C2.
ediviewer: read EDI files like documentsOpen EDIFACT and X12 messages, see every segment explained, convert to JSON/XML, export PDF and Excel. Runs locally, no upload.
giftdetect: the right gift in minutesPick who it is for, the occasion and their personality. The search engine reads product descriptions from local shops and ranks what fits. Free, no sign-up.
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