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Your Amazon Dash Buttons are about to die. What can you do with them?

Amazon Dash Buttons
Buttoned up: Amazon is discontinuing the Dash Buttons

My youngest daughter will be heartbroken. For the past few years, we’ve had an Amazon Dash Button that we use to re-order toilet roll and she loves pressing a button and seeing the delivery man arrive the next day. Kids and buttons, eh?

Alas, Amazon is killing the Dash Buttons. So what can you do with those little lozenges of plastic and silicon now?

When are the Amazon Dash Buttons going to stop working?

Your Amazon Dash Buttons will cease working on August 31st 2019.

Amazon has replaced them with virtual Dash Buttons that you will find on the Amazon website or in the company’s smartphone and tablet apps, but they are nowhere near as convenient.

What can you do with the old Amazon Dash Buttons?

Assuming you don’t want to add to landfill by chucking those Dash Buttons in the bin, there are several things you can do with them.

Firstly, Amazon offers its own recycling programme. The scheme accepts all Amazon hardware – tablets, Kindle readers, Fire TV sticks and the Dash Buttons. You just tell it how many of each you have, fill in your address and it will provide you with with a pre-paid UPS label to affix to your parcel.

You then need to take this to your nearest UPS drop-off point – click on the link to find your nearest one.

I’m not sure of the environmental benefit of this approach, especially as the UPS label printed for me here in the UK is shipping the package to Austria. If your local recycling plant takes in electronic equipment, it would seem more sensible to drop it off there.

Turn your Dash Buttons into something else

The other option, for the more technically minded reader, is to hack your Dash Buttons and give them a new lease of life. You could, for example, turn them into a switch for your smart lights or use them as a button to text a family member to let them know you’ve arrived home.

The video below shows you how you can use an Android app called JG Dash Automation to reprogramme your Dash Buttons to perform various tasks. As with all such hacks, it seems a little hit and miss, but it won’t cost you anything to give it a go.

If you’re not afraid to get your hands dirty with code and you’ve got a Raspberry Pi to hand, this article shows you how you can repurpose those Dash Buttons as a general purpose smart button.

NOW READ THIS: How do Amazon Dash Buttons work?

About the author

Barry Collins

Barry has scribbled about tech for almost 20 years for The Sunday Times, PC Pro, WebUser, Which? and many others. He was once Deputy Editor of Mail Online and remains in therapy to this day. Email Barry at barry@bigtechquestion.com.

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