Amazon is shutting down its Halo health service soon.
The popular e-commerce company recently announced to customers that it would soon stop supporting Amazon Halo and all devices under it in July due to certain economic and business factors.
Amazon stated it is willing to refund the customers of devices that support Amazon Halo.
Amazon Halo Shut Down Details
In this screengrab, Vice President, Halo Melissa Cha introduces Halo View during Amazon Devices and Services Announcement on September 28, 2021.
Amazon mentioned in the announcement it emailed to its Halo service customers that it made the very difficult decision to stop supporting it on July 31, though it did not mention why it did so.
However, an Engadget report citing a statement from Amazon's vice-president of smart home and health, Melissa Cha, said that the Halo health service encountered "significant headwinds" that prevented it from being an efficient and beneficial service to maintain. These headwinds include "an increasingly crowded segment and an uncertain economic environment."
"Although our customers love many aspects of Halo, we must prioritize resources and maximize benefits to customers and the long-term health of the business," Cha said.
Because it decided to shut down its Halo health service, Amazon added it is refunding customers who purchased devices using its health service in the last 12 months. These devices include Amazon Halo View, Amazon Halo Band, Amazon Halo Rise, and Amazon Halo accessory bands.
The company will also refund any unused prepaid Halo subscription fees to customers' original payment method; those with a paid subscription will no longer be charged monthly for the service.
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As such, Amazon invites Halo customers to either download or delete their Halo health data while they can from the Settings page in the app. Similarly, if customers want to save their scan images to their phone's Camera Roll, they would need to open the individual scan image, click the button next to the camera icon, and select "Save images to phone."
Amazon will delete any remaining Halo health data after Aug. 1. The company also encourages people to recycle their Amazon Halo devices and accessories through the company's Recycling Program, which covers the shipping and recycling fees of the devices and accessories sent to it.
Amazon's Headwinds
Amazon's headwinds are affecting the company in various ways. Thanks to them, the company decided to lay off many of its employees from various departments and divisions, with its Gaming division being the most recently affected, as the company previously announced letting go of more than 100 employees from it.
Much earlier, Amazon also laid off 400 Twitch employees and 9,000 more Amazon employees thanks to the headwinds it is experiencing.
Amazon isn't alone in facing these headwinds, as other tech giants have laid off many of their employees thanks to the economic downturn and the sudden (but unsustainable) growth it experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic's initial years.
You may remember that Meta laid off many of its employees and ushered a "Year of Efficiency" to make it a profitable company again, while Apple started to do the same to its workers after holding it off for so long, per CNBC and The Verge, respectively.
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