Alexa Plus now adapts to your mood in real time: we’re trying it

Alexa Plus is getting a new personality — in fact, three of them. Amazon announced on Wednesday that it will be adding three modes to its AI assistant, with the idea being that you’ll want the app to respond to the same mood you’re in.

All three New personality styles Brief, cool and sweet. Brevity wins over shorter, more direct answers. Cold brings a “cozy, comforting energy to every interaction,” and choosing sweet means Alexa Plus acts like “your biggest cheerleader, responding with genuine warmth and enthusiasm.”

Amazon said Wednesday it wants to tailor its Alexa assistant more to suit customers’ moods.

“Everyone has their own communication style and preferences, and a true personal assistant must adapt to suit that,” the statement read.

The new personality types are now available on Alexa Plus, and are free for Amazon Prime subscribers.

Styles are the latest wrinkle Amazon has added to the company’s Alexa Plus offering It was unveiled this month. Alexa Plus is an AI voice assistant designed to help with a variety of tasks, such as answering questions, making food orders, or helping with smart home automation.

Alexa Plus is one of several AI-based voice assistants, including Apple Siri, Google Gemini, Samsung Bixby, and Josh.ai. Alexa itself launched in 2014, alongside the first Echo smart speaker.

CNET’s Tyler Lakoma Spent a year using Alexa Plus She found it “conversational, connected, and a great fit for Prime users.”

Amazon said the new Alexa Plus personas are “built on five interconnected dimensions” — expression, emotional openness, formality, candor and humor. Each of them has its own range, for example, “subtle wit to overt sarcasm” for the humor dimension.

Giving it a test drive: What about the Seahawks?

I haven’t used Alexa since I got an Echo years ago, but I decided to try out the new personas in Alexa Plus. I downloaded the app and asked a nice, easy question: “How’s it going?” This is what I got.

For the brief setup, Alexa Plus responded, “Okay, thanks for asking. We’re just here to help people with whatever they need.” As promised, short and sweet.

For quiet settings, Alexa Plus is back, saying: “Hey Alex! Life’s flowing so smoothly right now, like catching the perfect wave on a Tuesday afternoon. Just interacting with the universe and helping people navigate whatever’s on their mind.” Well, for a moment there, I was transported to a California beach.

To Sweet, I said, “Things are absolutely great, Alex! I’m full of energy and ready for whatever amazing adventures you have in store!” Alexa was positively radiant on this one.

Well, how about something a little more realistic? I asked: “Will the Seahawks win the Super Bowl again next year?” The responses were:

Summary: “The Seahawks are in a very good position to capture another championship.”

Chell: “Hey Alex, cosmic vibes sound so sweet for your Seahawks, buddy!”

Sweat: “Oh my gosh, this is so exciting news! Your team is in great shape! The Seahawks are the championship favorites!”

Alexa Plus can obviously take advantage of these new personalities, but I expect the new feature to be tweaked and tweaked over time. It will be interesting to see the development.

Here’s how to try it yourself

To get to know the new Alexa Plus characters, first open the Alexa app on your phone. Select the device you use Alexa Plus on, such as your phone or most Echo devices.

Under Device Settings, find and select Alexa Personality Style. You will see the Experimental Feature window – select Explore.

You can then swipe left and right through both the new personas and the original Alexa persona. If you tap the large check mark for any character, that character will be enabled on the device.

CNET’s Tyler LaComa said he’s intrigued by the personal additions to Alexa Plus.

“In my testing, I found Alexa Plus to be very chattable, similar to how expressive ChatGPT is, so I’m curious to see how these characters can tweak the effects,” Lakoma said. “Personally, I would move toward the cold setting, since the current version of Alexa Plus can take a long time to explain a recipe or the weather. But those interested in the sweeter settings should keep in mind that Alexa Plus has cheerfully lied to me before, like promising to do tasks it can’t do yet, perhaps in an attempt to… also acceptable.”