amazon dash buttons

At first glance, the Dash Button appeared to be an April Fool’s joke, but four months later, Amazon says it is going prime time. The small plastic button, which is designed to be stuck or hung anywhere in your home, allows you to instantly reorder products, like toilet paper or diapers.

Today, TechHive noticed that the button is now out of beta and is available to any Prime customer willing to pay $4.99. As of today, there are 18-branded buttons available from Glad bags, Huggies diapers, Gatorade and Kraft Macaroni & Cheese. All of them are being described as “limited edition” and available while supplies last.

Amazon claims the button is simple to set up when using your smartphone amazon dashapp to connect it to your home Wi-Fi network and to pick what product you want to order. Once connected, a single press automatically places orders for your favorite items. Orders can be canceled if you change your mind, and it prevents accidents by responding only to your first press, unless you specify otherwise.

Initially, customers thought the buttons were a prank mainly because ordering from a smartphone app or your nearest computer seems convenient enough. But now that the product is live, and available to all Prime customers, it will be interesting to see if customers think the added convenience is worth the $4.99 cost.

Amazon is constantly trying to make purchases as brainless as possible, so the Dash button isn’t that random. For instance, it also has introduced the Amazon Dash, a six-inch stick that allows Amazon Fresh customers to add items to an online grocery list using a built-in barcode scanner or microphone and launched the Dash Replenishment Service, which allows connected devices around the house that can detect when supply is running low with Amazon’s ordering platform.

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