Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Amazon’s Echo Show 8 Photos Edition is losing its digital picture frame mode.
- After September 23, the smart display will basically just be a normal Echo Show 8.
- Owners will retain access to their 25GB of Amazon Photos storage.
Digital photo frames were some of the first non-TV screens to really find purchase in our living spaces, and while a single-purpose device like that feels a bit quaint in 2024, we still enjoy viewing pics saved in the cloud with Photo Frame on a Google Nest display. That’s far from your only option, though, and just last fall, Amazon introduced its Echo Show 8 Photos Edition, a “photo-forward” special edition of the company’s smart display. Now, less than a year later, Amazon is letting owners know about a big change that’s about to seriously impact functionality.
Amazon debuted the Echo Show 8 Photos Edition last September, priced $10 more than the regular $150 Echo Show 8. The main hook for the Photos Edition was that its ambient screen would display pictures you’ve saved to the 25GB of Amazon Photos storage that came with it. Not only did it cost more out of the box, but you’d need to subscribe to Amazon’s PhotosPlus service to continue using it as a digital picture frame — the first six months were free with purchase, and it cost $2 a month after that.
That might seem like a weird thing to have to pay extra for, especially as an ongoing fee, but clearly the proposition made sense to some buyers. We know this, because they’re the ones we’re hearing from now, as Amazon gets ready to end PhotosPlus — and effectively break the Echo Show 8 Photos Edition.
Reddit user wheelsee shares Amazon’s cancellation notice on the site’s Amazon Echo sub, where the company announces plans to end PhotosPlus as of September 23. Owners of the Echo Show 8 Photos Edition will get to keep their 25GB of Amazon Photos storage, but their smart displays will no longer feature the ambient digital photo frame mode that they bought their smart displays for in the first place.
While that ultimately will spell the end of this $2 monthly subscription, it also transforms the Photos Edition into a regular, old Echo Show 8 —just one that you paid more for, only to end up with features you can no longer use.
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