According to the spokeswoman, the Mayday video-calling service was offered only on legacy devices that are no longer sold by Amazon.com.

Amazon.com Inc. plans to retire Mayday, the video chat tech support feature for its Fire tablets, by the end of the month.

The online retailer launched Mayday in 2013 with a lot of hype, prominently featuring the tool in Amazon television ads.The tool allowed Fire device users to initiate a video conference call with Amazon tech support with the push of a button. Once connected, the support representative could see what was on the user’s screen and demonstrate how to resolve the consumer’s issue.

In a brief announcement on its website, Amazon (No. 1 in the Internet Retailer 2018 Top 500), says Mayday “will be discontinued in June 2018.” It reminds users that they “can still contact Amazon customer service any time through phone, email and chat.”

“Over the last two years we have seen decreasing demand from customers for the service,” an Amazon spokeswoman says. “We believe that we can offer a better customer experience for Fire tablets by focusing on improving other Amazon customer service contact channels.”

The phaseout was inevitable, the spokeswoman says, as the Mayday video-calling service was only offered on legacy devices that are no longer sold by Amazon. Users of previous and current Fire tablets can instead reach customer service for support any time by tapping on the “Phone & Email” icon, through the “Quick Actions” menu on their devices, or via the Help App on their device home screens.

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