The Amazon Alexa personal assistant went on strike on Christmas Day, according to scores of users in the UK.
The Down Detector website reported peak complaints of 2,183, just as many new Amazon Echo users across the nation would be setting up their new smart home device. The outage map is showing hotspots across Western Europe too (via Thurrott).
The outage began at 9:52am on Christmas morning according to the Down Detector Twitter account. Issues lasted throughout the morning, but at the time of writing everything seems to be up and running again.
Related: Amazon Alexa guide
Alexa is having issues since 09:52. https://t.co/PTkqzz7OLs RT if it's down for you as well #amazonalexadown
— DowndetectorUK (@DowndetectorUK) December 25, 2018
According to users on social media, the personal assistant is refusing to acknowledge voice requests on a wide range of compatible devices, including the Sonos One which offers third-party supprrt for Alexa.
@AmazonUK I saved to buy my parents an Alexa and now the whole service is down on Christmas Day?! Wonderful.
— Sarah (@sarah_aslannnn) December 25, 2018
It’s possible the mighty load of requests from new device owners caused the platform to crash, but Amazon is yet to publicly comment on the outage.
#Alexa is down on Christmas morning ? thank goodness I went to the charity shop for Christmas #vinyl Were going to have to go analogue! @amazon pic.twitter.com/is7YC6AhWu
— Kelly Roche (@kkellyro) December 25, 2018
What's wrong with alexa not understanding anything?!? "Sorry I'm having trouble understanding right now, please try again later" when the could is down, it's useless … And now it's randomly listening and lighting up without wake word ?!? Fix this @AmazonHelp @amazonecho
— Aria (@ms_aria101) December 25, 2018
We’ll update this report – in between sips of sherry – if Amazon stops eating long enough to address the situation.
Is your Alexa device still struggling to respond to your festive requests? Drop us a line @TrustedReviews on Twitter.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
