Amazon lets shoppers text Alexa to search for and buy items

Amazon said on Friday it is letting customers text Alexa for Shopping, its AI shopping assistant, to search for, compare and buy products, starting with select US customers before the holiday season.

Text messaging is becoming a standard way to reach consumer agents, software that carries out tasks such as shopping on a user's behalf, and The Information reported that rivals including Meta's Muse and Instinct already work that way. Amazon blocked Muse from querying its site in September.

Select US customers will receive a text asking them to enable the feature, and those not invited can join a waitlist, Amazon said, according to TechCrunch. The company said the feature would reach millions of users in the coming weeks.

Customers can describe a product or send a photo of an item, or of someone wearing an outfit, and the assistant searches Amazon listings, texts back recommendations and places the order. It can also manage lists, track prices, search the web, compare products and check order status. Amazon said the assistant will learn users' preferences over time and suggest items.

The contact appears on phones as “Amazon Alexa,” according to The Verge, and the feature builds on Alexa for Shopping, which launched in May.

Other consumer platforms are also building their own agents rather than relying on outside ones. DoorDash said in October that third-party agents had placed only hundreds of orders in total on its platform and that it would focus on its own text-based agent, launched in September. Airbnb plans to launch its own travel-planning agent in the first half of 2027, the company said on November 5.