Problems with Alexa in Early 2026

We are aware of a widespread issue with Alexa recognizing the “Ask/Tell AnyList” command that started in March 2026. We have reported the problem to Amazon and they have told us that they are investigating it. So far it has not been fixed, and it’s unclear when that might happen.

The Problem

The problem is that when you say, “Alexa, tell AnyList to add apples”, Alexa ignores the fact that you are trying to invoke the AnyList skill and instead tries to add the item to Alexa’s own built-in shopping list.

This sort of failure has been an intermittent problem for some customers since July 2024, when we were forced to update our skill to use the “Ask/Tell AnyList” syntax due to Amazon shutting down the API that allowed third party apps to sync with Alexa’s built-in lists.

Starting in March 2026, this problem has been happening much more frequently to a much larger number of customers.

Current Status

Unfortunately, only Amazon can fix this.

We reported the problem to Amazon on March 20th and have been told that they are investigating it.

Amazon has not provided any information about when we can expect the issue to be resolved.

Workarounds

There are a couple of workarounds that seem pretty reliable for most people. We understand that both of these workarounds are annoying, and we wish they weren’t necessary. But they are options until Amazon fixes the underlying problem.

Workaround: Say “Open AnyList”

Instead of saying, “Alexa, tell AnyList to add apples”, you can do the following:

1. Say, “Alexa, open AnyList”.
2. Wait for Alexa to open our skill.
3. Say, “Add apples”.

Workaround: Disable Alexa+

Another option is to turn off Alexa+ and revert to the original Alexa experience. You can do this by saying, “Alexa, disable Alexa+”. After doing that, the “Ask/Tell AnyList” command should work more reliably.

FAQ

How can I provide feedback to Amazon about this problem?

When the “Ask/Tell AnyList” command fails, say “Alexa, feedback”. Alexa will ask for your feedback and then automatically send it to Amazon, along with diagnostic information.

You can also provide general feedback to Amazon by launching the Alexa app on your phone, then tapping on the More menu > Help > Provide feedback.

I contacted Amazon support about this problem and they said I should contact AnyList for a fix. What gives?

We’ve had some customers who have been told by Amazon customer support representatives that they should contact us for a fix.

Unfortunately these Amazon representatives are either misunderstanding the problem or misinformed about the solution.

When you ask Alexa to invoke a skill, it’s up to Alexa to correctly identify the skill you want to use and invoke it.

Third party developers like AnyList have little to no control over the skill invocation process. We only get to process your command after Alexa has identified our skill as the one that should handle your command.

If Alexa doesn’t handle this properly, then your command never reaches AnyList.

Does this have something to do with Alexa+?

It seems so, given that turning off Alexa+ improves the situation. We were hoping that Alexa+ would improve Alexa’s reliability when it comes to correctly invoking skills, but that does not appear to be the case.

Why are you still using a standard Alexa skill instead of some new Alexa+ API?

Amazon’s new APIs for Alexa+ are not publicly available. It’s not clear if any of the new APIs would work for AnyList integration. We submitted the form to request early access to the Alexa+ APIs, but our request was not accepted.