Amazon tests Alexa+ with Hindi language support in India, targeting 600 million speakers

Amazon is testing Alexa+ in India with Hindi support

Amazon is planning to increase the footprint of its new conversational AI assistant Alexa+ to India, and is inviting users in the country to test out a Hindi-language version. The company sent out emails to some customers, which were seen by TechCrunch, asking users to fill out a form in Hindi by June 22 to join the beta testing program. "You are invited to join the Alexa+ Beta programme in India. We are creating a new Alexa experience, and your feedback will be important to refine what Alexa+ will be able to do. By joining the Alexa+ Beta programme, you'll be notified when the testing experience in Hindi (India) is available to you," the email read. The email added that the beta software would have bugs and might give inaccurate information or mispronounce local nuances. The company confirmed that it is testing Alexa+ in India but didn't provide a comment. At the moment, Alexa+ is not available in India, and it is not clear when it will launch in the country. Amazon launched Alexa in India with English support in 2017 and added Hindi compatibility in 2019. More than 600 million people speak Hindi in India, and Amazon is trying to tap the market of native speakers who might speak both Hindi and English in a code-mixed way. Companies know that voice might be a big factor in AI tool usage in India and are finding new ways to have people talk to assistants. Amazon first announced the gen AI-powered conversational assistant Alexa+ in 2025. However, its rollout was slow, and the new experience was made available to all U.S. users only in February. This year, the company has increased Alexa+'s footprint to countries like the U.K., Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Italy, and Germany, with support for local context. Amazon offers Alexa+ to Prime customers for free, and others can pay a monthly fee to access the updated assistant.

Amazon invites Indian users to beta-test a Hindi version of Alexa+

Amazon is beta-testing a Hindi version of Alexa+ in India, its first expansion into a non-Western-language market. Amazon is testing Alexa+ in India with Hindi-language support, the company's first move to bring its generative AI assistant to a non-Western-language market. The company sent emails to select Indian customers inviting them to join a beta-testing programme, according to TechCrunch, which viewed the invitations. The emails asked users to fill out a form in Hindi by June 22 to join the programme. "We are creating a new Alexa experience, and your feedback will be important to refine what Alexa+ will be able to do," the invitation read, adding that participants would be notified when the Hindi testing experience becomes available. Amazon confirmed it is testing Alexa+ in India but declined to comment further. The beta software will have bugs and may give inaccurate information or mispronounce local nuances, according to the email. Alexa+ is not currently available in India, and no launch date has been announced. The Hindi market is enormous. More than 600 million people speak the language in India, many of them in a code-mixed way that blends Hindi and English in the same conversation. Amazon first launched Alexa in India with English support in 2017 and added Hindi compatibility in September 2019, but the original Alexa was a command-based system with none of the conversational AI capabilities that define Alexa+. Alexa+ is Amazon's generative AI overhaul of its voice assistant, built on a mix of Amazon's own models and third-party AI including technology from Anthropic. The company announced Alexa+ in February 2025 and made it available to all US users in February 2026. It costs roughly twenty dollars a month, though Prime members get it free, and it has since expanded to the UK, Canada, Mexico, Italy, Spain, Germany, Austria, and France. India would mark a significant step beyond Western markets. The country presents particular challenges for voice AI, including dozens of regional languages, heavy code-switching between Hindi and English, and pronunciation patterns that differ sharply from the accents most AI models are trained on. Amazon is not the only company chasing Indian voice users. Reliance's Jio announced its Call Agent at its annual shareholder meeting last week, an AI assistant that can join phone calls, transcribe conversations, and perform tasks like booking cabs and ordering food. Jio said the service would support 22 Indian languages and reach its more than 500 million subscribers. Meta, meanwhile, just invested $900 million in Indian fintech Cred and appointed its founder to run WhatsApp, signalling that India remains one of the most contested tech markets in the world. Amazon's own $35 billion India commitment, focused largely on logistics and ecommerce, now extends to AI. Whether Amazon can make Alexa+ work in Hindi well enough to compete with local alternatives remains the open question. The original Alexa never gained the kind of traction in India that it found in the US, and a beta test with bugs and mispronunciations is a long way from a polished product. But the fact that Amazon is investing in Hindi localisation at all suggests the company sees India as central to its AI assistant strategy, not an afterthought.

Why Amazon Is Testing Hindi Alexa+ Before Its India Launch

Amazon is inviting Indian users to beta-test a Hindi-language version of Alexa+, its generative AI conversational assistant. The company emailed select customers, as reported by TechCrunch, asking them to complete a form by June 22 to participate. Alexa+ is not yet available in India, and Amazon has not announced a launch date. What does the beta actually involve? The invitation email informed users that they would be notified when the Hindi (India) testing experience became available, meaning access would not be granted immediately upon registration. Amazon also stated that the beta software may contain bugs, provide inaccurate information, or mispronounce local words and nuances. The company confirmed to TechCrunch that it is testing Alexa+ in India but declined to provide additional details. Why India, and why Hindi? More than 600 million people in India speak Hindi. Amazon is targeting native Hindi speakers who often mix Hindi and English in conversation, a code-switching pattern that is common in urban and semi-urban areas. Voice technology is increasingly seen as a key driver of AI adoption in India, with many companies working to integrate AI assistants into phone calls, apps, and smart devices. This is not Amazon's first initiative to support Hindi. The company launched Alexa in India with English in 2017 and added Hindi compatibility in 2019. Amazon launched Alexa and Echo devices for Indian customers in February 2018, introducing the Echo, Echo Dot, Echo Plus, and Harman Kardon Allure on Amazon.in. At launch, Indian users could access more than 12,000 Alexa skills across categories such as Business & Finance, Food & Drink, Games, Music & Audio, and News, all in English. The 2018 launch primarily targeted English-speaking users and encouraged local developers to build applications using the Alexa Skills Kit ecosystem. Alexa+'s slow global march: Amazon announced Alexa+ in 2025, but the rollout has been gradual. The updated experience became available to all U.S. users in February 2026. Since then, Amazon has expanded Alexa+ to the UK, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Italy, and Germany, with support tailored to local languages and contexts. India is expected to be the next addition, though it is still in pre-launch testing. Amazon currently offers Alexa+ at no additional cost to Prime subscribers, while non-Prime users pay a monthly subscription fee. It remains unclear whether the same pricing model will apply in India.