Amazon Alexa Devices to Get Ads Inside Skills

Some users won’t like what Amazon has just announced for the Alexa voice assistant inside the Echo smart speakers. Business Insider reports that soon Amazon will launch a new platform called Sponsored Messages that will place 6-15 second ads inside skills for the Alexa voice assistant device.

For now these ads will only be heard inside of third party skills and the money for all of those ads will go directly to the third-party developers. However, this is likely a test to see how well Alexa device users respond to the ads and if the response is good you can bet some of Amazon’s own skills will turn up with ads in them.

Acceptance by Alexa users could mean ads inside the flash news or shopping lists skills in the future. Integrating ads into Alexa could be a massive boost for Amazon’s bottom line, estimates figure that 9 million US homes have an Echo device right now and by 2022 16.5 million homes will.

The new Sponsored Messages platform could also include video ads on the new Echo show with its 7-inch screen. Business Insider figures that ads will take away from the user experience, but doesn’t think that the ads will hurt Amazon’s markt standing in the segment. Amazon’s main rival, the Google Home line of devices, is also expected to serve up ads leaving the two on par in that aspect. Apple is rumored to be entering the segment with a Siri speaker and it may gain the upper hand in the segment because the chances of it having ads are slim as all Apple wants is more palces for its music and apps.