Amazon launches its first-ever digital photo frame with Alexa voice controls – but there’s a catch

Following the announcement of its new Echo smart speaker line-up, Amazon has announced yet another Alexa-enabled device – the Alexa Photo Frame. While Amazon has released digital photo frames before, the Alexa Photo Frame is the first-of-its-kind to have Alexa built-in to display and organise your photos more creatively and seamlessly.

Measuring 10 inches, the Alexa Photo Frame looks like a traditional photo frame, but it enhances the look of your photos with its light sensing technology. It automatically changes the frame’s brightness from day to night, and has a semi-matte anti-glare finish so it looks less like a screen and blends nicely into your home.

As an Amazon product, the Alexa Photo Frame comes with built-in Alexa controls, and it works with Amazon Photos. Once you upload your photos – which is free and unlimited if you have a Prime subscription – you can pick photos and albums to display.

Now, you might be wondering why you’d need Alexa voice controls in a photo frame – I most certainly was. But the Alexa Photo Frame cleverly uses Alexa+ to pick photos based on time, feeling and faces. Not only will it pick the best quality photos, but it’ll also skip things like receipts and screenshots.

Other digital photo frames require you to use an app to change your photos, but with Alexa voice commands, you can ask Alexa to find pictures for you. For example, you can say “Alexa, show me pictures from my last holiday”, and it will use your description to select your photos.

Alexa+ also makes your entire photo library much more organised. For example, Alexa can find connections between your photos, like places and people, and will compile them into a slideshow for you. Speaking of slideshows, the HD screen of the Alexa Photo Frame is a touch display, so you can flip through your photos like you would on your phone.

Another clever feature of the Alexa Photo Frame is you can add voice notes to your photos. This could be you explaining what is happening in the frame, or if you’re gifting the Alexa Photo Frame to someone, you could leave them a fun message.

But on to the ‘catch’ of the new Alexa Photo Frame launch – and that’s the price and availability. Prices on the Alexa Photo Frame start at $199.99 in black, or $229.99 in walnut, and both are available to buy now at Amazon. Most digital photo frames have similar pricing, so this is nothing out of the ordinary.

However, as of writing, the Alexa Photo Frame is not yet available in the UK or Europe. Whether it will arrive outside of the US hasn’t been announced or confirmed, so if you’re in the UK and you like the look of it, you’ll have to wait for a while before you can buy it.