Alexa Together was discontinued. What can families use instead?

Updated September 3, 2026. Published by Parents Home Care.

Amazon discontinued Alexa Together in May 2025. There is no single replacement with exactly the same package. Families should replace its functions separately: a daily check-in, activity changes, an emergency call path, fall response, and a nearby person who can enter the home.

Replace it one function at a time

Job your family needs	A possible replacement	What still needs a person
Daily reassurance	Scheduled call, text, or simple check-in tool	Someone notices a miss and follows up
Activity change	Motion or door sensor used with consent	Someone judges whether the change matters
Urgent help	Mobile alert, wearable button, or monitored call service	A responder reaches the parent or calls 911
Fall response	Wearable or wall button, sometimes with automatic alerting	Someone confirms what happened and gets help
Family coordination	Shared calendar, care log, or group message	One person owns each task
Home entry	Lockbox or agreed key plan	A trusted nearby person can actually go in

A product can send a signal. It cannot guarantee that the signal is accurate, seen, understood, or answered. Every alert needs a named first responder, a backup, and a time limit.

Not sure where she stands overall? The five-minute assessment asks about what you've actually seen, then shows its reasoning. Free, no sign-up.

Work out which functions you actually used

A service can offer ten functions while your family relies on two. For one week, record what anyone actually needed to know:

Did she answer at the agreed time? A short call may be enough.
Did an ordinary part of the day happen? Breakfast, medication, a walk, or a visit is a better signal than general activity.
Could she ask for help? Test the call path from the rooms where she spends time.
Could someone get inside? An alert without access still leaves her waiting.
Who responds first? A nearby neighbor beats an adult child two hours away.
What happens when the first method fails? Phones lose charge. Wearables come off. Internet drops.

This inventory prevents overbuying. It can also show the real gap isn’t technology: meals, transportation, medication help, company, or someone present at the harder parts of the day.

If this started with an unanswered call, use the step-by-step plan for a parent who is not answering the phone.

What to ask before you buy anything

Compare response, consent, and reliability before features. Ask any service or tool:

What exact event creates an alert?
Who receives it, and how quickly?
Is a staffed response center involved?
What happens if the internet or power is out?
Does it work away from home?
Can she cancel a false alert easily?
Who owns the account and can see the data?
Can location or activity sharing be turned off?
How long is the data kept?
Can the family export or delete it?
What is the full monthly cost, including required equipment?
What happens if the company ends the service?

Do not treat automatic fall alerts as certainty. A device may miss a fall or report an ordinary movement. Build the plan as if either could happen. The guide on what to do after a fall covers the human follow-up an alert cannot complete.

Parents Home Care does not recommend or rank speakers, watches, sensors, or monitoring companies. The right choice depends on the person, the home, the response roster, and what she accepts.

Keep it running without monitoring everything

Use the least intrusive signal that answers the real question. A respectful daily plan looks like this:

She sends a text or makes a short call by 10 a.m.
If there’s no check-in, one person calls twice over 15 minutes.
If there’s still no answer, a nearby responder goes to the home.
If the responder sees immediate danger, or cannot get in when danger is likely, the family calls 911.
The coordinator records the outcome and fixes the weak part of the plan.

Ask her what feels acceptable. Explain who sees each signal and what a missed signal sets off. Give her a way to pause routine monitoring without creating a false emergency. Review the agreement after any change in health, mobility, housing, or family availability.

A specific signal is both more private and more useful. “Did Mom make coffee?” tells the family less than “Did Mom check in by 10?”, and gives her less control.

What the plan needs besides technology

A nearby response roster. Name the first person, the backup, and the after-hours option.
Home access. Agree on a key, lockbox, building contact, or another lawful entry method.
A short emergency sheet. Keep the address, phone, medications, health contacts, and preferred hospital current.
Routine support. List meals, rides, household work, personal care, and appointment help.
A communication owner. One person updates the family so she doesn’t answer the same question six times.
A failure test. Practice what happens when the phone, the internet, or the main responder is unavailable.
A review date. Recheck monthly and after any incident.

An emergency button cannot deliver food, notice spoiled groceries, organize bills, or sit with someone after a difficult day. The guide to checking on a parent every day builds the routine, and caring from a distance covers doing it from another city.

Does losing the service mean she can’t live alone?

No. The end of a subscription doesn’t decide that. It does show which parts of the family plan were resting on one product.

A daily check-in is one kind of support. It does not replace visits, home changes, a pharmacist, or a doctor. A strong local responder and a reliable check-in may close a small gap. Repeated falls, getting lost, medication mix-ups, or nobody able to reach the home point to a larger one.

The Parents Home Care assessment organizes seven areas: urgent events, household basics, medication, getting around, judgment, connection and strain, and available support. It doesn’t choose a device or a home. It sorts the facts into one of three plain-language results and gives the family next actions. The criteria are published, so you can read how it works before answering anything.

Where this comes from

The National Institute on Aging says living at home may require personal care, household help, meals, money management, health support, and emergency planning, not just one device (NIA).
Regular contact and meaningful activity can support social connection, while hearing or mobility barriers may make connection harder (NIA).
The US Eldercare Locator connects families with local aging services by web or by phone at 1-800-677-1116 (Eldercare Locator).

Questions families ask

Is Alexa Together still available?

No. Amazon says Alexa Together is no longer available, and the service was retired in May 2025. It had combined remote activity information, check-ins, fall-detection compatibility, a support circle, and urgent-response access in one subscription, and Amazon now points former users toward its separate emergency-assistance service (Amazon). That covers one part of the old service, not the whole family-care setup.

Is there one direct replacement?

No. Some tools handle urgent calls. Others handle daily check-ins, location, or activity. Compare each function and its response path, using the table above, and expect the best arrangement to combine a scheduled human check-in, a local responder, and one simple alert tool.

Does my existing speaker recreate the old features?

Not on its own. A smart speaker can support reminders, calls, or routines, but it may lose power or internet access, misunderstand speech, or go unused. Pair it with a person who notices a missed check-in, a backup contact, and a clear time for visiting or calling 911.

How do I raise monitoring with a parent who values privacy?

Start with the problem she wants solved, then offer the smallest signal that can solve it. State who sees the information, how long it is kept, and exactly what happens after an alert. Ask for agreement before sharing activity or location, and revisit the plan if the tool creates distress or changes the relationship.

What free help is there for finding local services?

In the United States, the Eldercare Locator connects families with Area Agencies on Aging and local programs at 1-800-677-1116. In the United States and much of Canada, 211 can also help locate community services. Ask about meals, transportation, caregiver support, home modifications, and emergency-response options.

Where the assessment fits

Tonight was one event. If you're wondering about the pattern, the assessment is the place to think it through. It can say living alone looks workable right now, and it will show you why.

Start the free assessment

Published by Parents Home Care. Clinically reviewed by Sarah Fleischman, CCC-SLP on September 3, 2026. Updated September 3, 2026. Sources: 4 linked below.

Sources

Alexa Together service page, Amazon fact for the service’s retirement, former feature set, and current referral.
Aging in place: Growing older at home, National Institute on Aging fact for the categories of help that can support living at home.
Loneliness and social isolation: Tips for staying connected, National Institute on Aging fact for regular contact and barriers to connection.
Eldercare Locator, Administration for Community Living fact for the national referral service and phone number. The function-by-function replacement plan is a practical inference from the retired service’s features and the need for backups.