Amazon's Alexa Can Now Place Prime Orders

Hey Alexa, I need more toilet paper. I also need a video game, because I'm bored, and my cat wants more cat food.

No, I'm not complaining to Amazon's digital assistant, nor am I trying to guilt Alexa into a pithy, sympathetic response. I'm making orders, because Amazon has officially unlocked a new feature that allows Alexa owners to shop for all sorts of Amazon Prime items.

Yes, you could shop for Amazon items via Alexa prior to Amazon's update. However, you were limited to reordering items you already purchased or some other select items from Amazon, not any ol' Amazon Prime-featured item in Amazon's sprawling catalog.

You still can't order everything from Amazon by telling Alexa you want one. Ineligible items for the new voice ordering feature include apparel and shoes (how would Alexa know what kind of shirt you want?), jewelry (same), and both Amazon Fresh and Amazon Prime Pantry items. You also can't tell Alexa you want add-on items, nor can you tell Alexa you want special Amazon Prime Now items—sorry, the digital assistant can't help you fill up your kitchen shelves like that.

Otherwise, asking Alexa to "order baseball bat," for example, will trigger Amazon's helper to come up with a recommendation of what it thinks you want to get. Alexa will also tell you how much its recommendation costs. If it sounds good, all you have to do is answer in the affirmative and Alexa will place the order on your behalf—defaulting to whatever you previously established for your one-click payment setting on Amazon. Any items ordered via Alexa are also eligible for free returns.

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If you want to make sure that others in your house don't start ordering items on your behalf, you can also turn off voice purchasing completely or require potential buyers to submit a confirmation code when ordering an item. (That should hopefully stop your roommates from buying themselves a giant gummi bear courtesy of you.)

You can also yell at Alexa if you need to cancel an order you recently placed or if you want Alexa to track an ongoing order.