Amazon to kill Dash button functions on August 31—you have a month to hack yours

Enlarge / RIP, Amazon Dash. (credit: Amazon / Sam Machkovech)

Amazon's four-year dalliance with plastic "BUY! BUY! BUY!" buttons appears to finally be coming to a close.

The Amazon Dash line of physical, Internet-connected buttons, which allowed customers to purchase (usually for around $5 a pop) one-tap restocking of home staples like snacks, toiletries, and laundry supplies, will stop functioning altogether on August 31. This follows Amazon's decision to stop selling the buttons in February of this year, despite being so bullish about the concept that it was selling over 100 brands' worth of Dash buttons by 2016.

In a statement to Cnet, Amazon justified its plans by saying that consumer use of the devices "has significantly slowed" since the retailer stopped offering them as a buyable option. In addition, Amazon points to ways that consumers can exert even less energy to buy stuff, particularly via Internet-connected appliances that leverage Amazon's Dash Replenishment API to reup on supplies when a device suspects something is running low. (We're kind of sad that Amazon didn't just sell consumers a robot that would automatically trot up to your existing Dash buttons and tap them on your behalf, but, alas.) Meanwhile, if you really crave tapping a single, colorful button to get more boxes of macaroni and cheese, Amazon still offers a digital facsimile in the form of a virtual Dash Buttons interface from either Amazon's home page or shopping app.

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