Amazon brings its Alexa shopping agent into direct text messaging

Amazon is launching a feature that lets shoppers message its Alexa for Shopping AI agent to find items, compare products, and place orders directly through SMS. The tool began rolling out on Friday to an invitation-only group of U.S. customers ahead of the holiday season, with uninvited users able to join a waitlist before access expands to millions more in the coming weeks. [1][2]

Customers who opt in receive a contact in their messaging app to submit conversational queries or photos, such as snaps of outfits or recipe ingredients, which the assistant uses to find matching Amazon listings. The agent works in the background and texts back options before completing purchases with customer approval or through an optional auto-buy setting when prices hit specified targets. The company says threads will carry over to the Amazon website, mobile app, and Alexa devices, and it plans to integrate order tracking, delivery notifications, and deals into the same conversation. [1][2][3]

The expansion comes as tech companies increasingly embrace text-based AI assistants while guarding their platforms against rivals. Amazon has moved to block competing agents from companies like Meta, Google, Perplexity, and OpenAI from querying its retail catalogue. Digiday also notes that sponsored products can appear in the agent's texted recommendations at no charge to advertisers for now, opening a new channel for a business that generated $68.6 billion in advertising sales for Amazon in 2025. [1][2]