Goodbye photos, hello ads. Amazon is getting rid of its PhotosPlus service after less than a year on the market, turning the pricier smart display into a standard Echo Show 8.
Amazon last year quietly added the Echo Show 8 Photos Edition to its smart display lineup. But come Sept. 23, the device will no longer display photos as its primary function, presumably the main reason someone would’ve purchased it in the first place.
The Echo Show 8 Photos Edition launched in September 2023 alongside the third-gen Echo Show 8 and Echo Hub. It cost $10 more than the base Echo Show 8 and required a $2-per-month subscription to Amazon’s PhotosPlus service after a six-month free trial. It turned the device into more of a digital photo frame and added 25GB of storage through Amazon Photos.
Now, instead of photos of their pets or last vacation, device owners will be forced to look at ads on the device’s screen.
