Amazon launches text interaction with Alexa for Shopping
Amazon is letting customers communicate with its "Alexa for Shopping" feature on its app and website via text message.
Beginning Friday, Nov. 6, a subset of U.S. customers will receive a text message inviting them to try out texting Alexa for Shopping, with rollout to millions of additional customers planned for the coming weeks. Amazon is rolling out the ability for a request started over text to carry over to Alexa for Shopping in the Amazon Shopping app, on Amazon.com, and on Alexa-enabled devices, and vice versa.
Amazon released Alexa for Shopping in May 2025. It combines the personalization capabilities of the next-gen Alexa+ voice model with the functionality of the Rufus agentic AI shopping assistant (discontinued as part of the launch) to deliver a targeted shopping experience where customers can browse and shop the full Amazon store using voice, touch, or both.
[READ MORE: Amazon enables conversational shopping via Alexa voice assistant]
To get started, customers who receive the message can accept the terms, link their phone number, and start shopping from their text messages. Customers with access can text Alexa for Shopping with all kinds of shopping requests, such as starting a weekly grocery order, searching for a birthday gift or sharing a product photo and asking for similar items.
Alexa for Shopping will then perform the requested tasks and message back with suggestions. It can add items to a cart and seamlessly complete the purchase at customer request. As customers use Alexa for Shopping, it learns their personal preferences, shopping habits, and tastes with the goal of delivering an increasingly personalized experience over time.
“Customers often jot down what they need the moment they think of it in their notes, in their messages, in their group chats,” said Rajiv Mehta, VP of conversational shopping at Amazon. “Now with Alexa for Shopping, your personal shopping agent is just a text away. Message it what you need, and Alexa goes to work on your behalf—searching, comparing, and buying so you can get on with your day.”
Amazon upgrades Alexa for Shopping
Since its release in May 2026, Amazon has taken other steps to enhance the functionality of Alexa for Shopping. These include expanding its price history capabilities to show 30, 90 and 365 days of price history.
Alexa for Shopping also has all the other Amazon agentic shopping capabilities, such as snapping a photo to use visual search, finding deals based on browsing history and shopping lists, searching for items by price range, setting price alerts, and auto buying items at a set price.
Shoppers can also track packages and check order status through conversation; as well as receive automatic, personalized notifications of events such as product releases or musical performances with a feature called "Update Me When."
In addition, Amazon integrated communication verification in September and recently added more than 100 new shopping actions to Alexa for Shopping.
