subscription model coming???

[renegade600]

the outgoing Senior Vice President of Devices at Amazon, David Limp, also believes a subscription model is coming to Alexa

I will leave alexa in a heartbeat if they go to a subscription model.  Maybe I need to start
 checking into Mycroft.   

 https://www.androidpolice.com/amazon-alexa-was-always-useless/

[tuicemen]

I can see it happening and am surprised it hasn't yet.
However I too will be moving away.
 I left IFTTT for the same reason but it seems enough users bit the bullet to make thier decision work. ( so far)
There are enough free voice activation options out there that you don't need to pay for one.

[Joachim47]

This could be a blessing for me. I am still tied up with a divorced wife's account that I used for my home automation and amazon makes it very hard to transfer everything to a different account. A good reason to start the project from scratch while most of my HW investment remains viable with other integration providers.

[scottrods]

I (and many others) already have alternatives in my house. If it's gonna cost me to use a digital assistant I can live without it completely even... Yeah... I've got a lot of money tied up in it over the last several years, but it wouldn't hurt my feelings if it all crashed down. It was a fun experience. I learned a lit, and now have more knowledge to draw from to make decisions in the future, if I need to or have to go back to a Digital assistant.

I don't really see this coming to fruition simply due to the Loss of marketing potential on Amazon's part... at least not for a while. But It is a distinct possibility with all freebies.

the outgoing Senior Vice President of Devices at Amazon, David Limp, also believes a subscription model is coming to Alexa

I will leave alexa in a heartbeat if they go to a subscription model.  Maybe I need to start
 checking into Mycroft.   

 https://www.androidpolice.com/amazon-alexa-was-always-useless/

[renegade600]

I can see it happening and am surprised it hasn't yet.
However I too will be moving away.
 I left IFTTT for the same reason but it seems enough users bit the bullet to make thier decision work. ( so far)
There are enough free voice activation options out there that you don't need to pay for one.

I left wink and ifttt because they went to subscriptions.   I am afraid once one company decides to go the subscription route, the others will not be that far behind.   

[jwlv]

If it does happen, then home brew systems will get a big boost. Kind of like when the 1st gen Echo came out, there were no skills and no routines. When I got mine several months before the public release, I almost returned it because it was kind of useless. It was just a voice Google that gave lousy answers. When DIY hobbiests gained interest, people made their own thing with Samsung Smartthings and other lesser known solutions (X10, Rasberry Pi, etc.)