Everything you need to know about Amazon’s new smart button

Amazon wants to make it really, really easy for you to buy stuff. Like, scarily easy. ‘Press a button’ easy.

First it let you buy books with the input of a few banking details, then it introduced the ‘Buy it now’ button (cause of many drunken purchases at 4am on a Saturday morning) – and now Amazon has launched its Dash Button in the UK.

Announced back in 2014 and launched in the US last year, Dash Buttons let you order specific products from Amazon by pressing a button.

It’s proper ‘connected home’ stuff: each button is connected to your Wi-Fi, linking it to your Amazon account. On buying your button, you can set it up to be ‘paired’ with a product of your choice; you can either buy a pre-set one directly from Amazon, or buy an unpaired button and link it to your preferred product via the Amazon App on a smartphone.

Once it’s set up, you can then stick or hang the button in a convenient space near the product in question – something you’re set to get through on a regular basis, like toilet paper or razor blades. Tap the button when you’re running low and a pre-set unit of the product will be ordered from your account.

Dash Buttons cost £4.99, but it pays for itself as you get a £4.99 discount on your first order. It’s a technology that Amazon is eager to see spread throughout homes; this sort of gadget is designed to make it as easy as possible for you to part with your cash as soon as you recognise a need. DON’T go to the supermarket where it could be cheaper – press the Dash Button! NEVER LEAVE YOUR HOME – press the Dash Button. Okay, so it’s not quite that sinister, but you get the point.

The service is also only available to Prime customers for the moment; you can find out more here. We look forward to hearing the first stories of teenagers repairing the buttons to have their mum unwittingly buy them a PlayStation 4…