Amazon gives up on the Glow, its kid-focused video calling device

It’s no longer available on Amazon’s website. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

Amazon is discontinuing the Amazon Glow, its video calling / interactive gaming device designed to let families interact remotely with each other, as reported by Bloomberg. The device is already unavailable on Amazon’s website.

“At Amazon we think big, experiment, and invest in new ideas to delight customers,” Amazon spokesperson Tim Gillman said in a statement to The Verge. “We also continually evaluate the progress and potential of our products to deliver customer value, and we regularly make adjustments based on those assessments. We will be sharing updates and guidance with Glow customers soon.” Gillman declined to share further details.

The actual Amazon Glow hardware consisted of a teleconferencing device with a built-in tabletop projector that could project things like games or puzzles on a special mat. The idea was that a kid could play games on the mat while video chatting with a parent or family member on another device (Amazon recommended using a tablet). In her review of the Glow, Jennifer Pattison Tuohy praised many of the games and the product’s intuitive interface but criticized it for being occasionally buggy and taking up a lot of space.

It’s unclear how well the Glow sold — probably not well since Amazon is discontinuing it just over a year after announcing it — but according to Bloomberg, it only had about 500 reviews, which is quite low for an Amazon product.