The Amazon Echo Graveyard – The Verge

For the past decade, Amazon has strived for Alexa to be more than just a convenient way to start a cooking timer. To convince consumers of the potential of the smart assistant, the company has continually reinvented its Echo line. From fashion-critical cameras to microwaves you can ask to make popcorn, Echo’s iterative renaissance often felt wildly experimental in ways that didn’t always resonate with consumers.

While the Echo smart speaker has endured, many other Echo spin-offs, accessories, and variations have not. They were either too weird, too unnecessary, or too ahead of their time to survive more than a few years before quietly disappearing from Amazon’s online store.

Let’s take a look at the Echo products that failed to win over consumers or convince Amazon they were worth keeping.

Using a camera and built-in LED lights, the Echo Look was able to take body-length photos and videos of users wearing different outfits, which were cataloged through a standalone app and rated using “machine learning algorithms with advice from fashion specialists.”

It remains one of Amazon’s most peculiar and controversial Echo devices, immediately raising concerns about privacy and AI when it debuted in 2017. At $199.99, it was also one of the more expensive Echo spinoffs. It was eventually discontinued in 2020.

Should Amazon revive it? Nobody needed it in 2017. Nobody needs it now.

The Tap was Amazon’s first smart speaker to disconnect Alexa from a wall socket. It was a smart Bluetooth speaker with a nine-hour battery life and a convenient charging dock. Unlike Amazon’s Echo smart speakers, the Tap required users to physically press a button to summon Alexa, but was eventually updated so that the smart assistant was always listening for voice commands.

At $130, it was priced competitively with similarly sized wireless speakers, but its smart capabilities were only available if it had Wi-Fi connectivity. The Tap was discontinued in 2018, just two years after its launch.

Should Amazon revive it? Yes, not every device needs to be listening all the time.

The first in a series of new “Alexa gadgets” that never really took off, the Echo Buttons debuted in 2017 as wireless, puck-shaped buzzers that could be used to play single- or multi-player trivia games via a smart Echo speaker.

Available in two packs for $19.99, the Echo Buttons were intended to expand the usefulness of Echo products as fun and playful devices, but they were discontinued a few years later because smart speakers never really caught on as gaming devices .

Should Amazon revive it? No, we have better ways to game.

After the Echo Look, the Echo Spot was the second Amazon product to sneak a camera into bedrooms. With a round 2.5-inch screen, the Spot was a smaller, cheaper and more subtle version of the Echo Show, allowing it to be used more discreetly around the home, but it functioned best as a smart alarm clock on a bedside table.

The Spot can be used for video calls, but the camera can also be turned off for those with privacy concerns. Amazon discontinued the Echo Spot in 2019, but revived it in 2024 without the camera.

Should Amazon revive it? It’s already back from the dead.

In 2017, the Echo Connect arrived to extend the Echo’s calling capabilities to real phone numbers, not just other Echo devices. When plugged into a phone jack, the little black box turned the Echo smart speakers into speakerphones that could call landlines, including 911.

Amazon stopped selling the hardware a few years after its debut, as similar functionality was added to later Echo speakers – although this was limited to a select number of contacts and only outgoing calls to numbers in the US, Canada and UK .

Should Amazon revive it? Yes, if only for our grandparents.

The Echo Plus debuted three years after the original Amazon Echo launched in 2014 and featured a redesigned speaker with improved sound and aimed to be an all-in-one smart home hub. The Echo Plus was cheaper than the original and included Zigbee support, allowing it to control smart lights, sockets and locks without the need for a separate hub. But the Echo Plus lacked support for Z-Wave, the other popular smart home protocol at the time, and was $50 more expensive than a smaller Echo that debuted alongside it.

An updated version of the Echo Plus was announced in 2018, but the product was ultimately discontinued in 2020 as smart home technologies evolved.

Should Amazon revive it? No, there are better smart home solutions now.

Announced in 2018, the Echo Wall Clock had no microphone and was instead designed as an accessory for Echo smart speakers that displayed the current time and the progress of running timers using a ring of LEDs.

Amazon later teamed up with Disney for a Mickey Mouse version of the clock, while Citizen introduced alternate designs. The clock’s limited functionality and a problematic rollout in which many users experienced connection issues contributed to Amazon eventually discontinuing the clock.

Should Amazon revive it? No, its usefulness was a bit too limited.

Although it didn’t have its own microphone and speaker, the $59.99 AmazonBasics Microwave was designed to connect to existing Echo devices in the home so you could ask Alexa to microwave a potato or a bag of popcorn without having to go through a menu with cooking presets. the oven itself.

Being able to quickly stop the microwave with a voice command if you smelled burning food was a useful feature, but the microwave was more useful as a tool for Amazon to demonstrate its Alexa Connect Kit while it tried to convince other hardware manufacturers to adopt its smart assistant. Four years after its debut, the microwave was discontinued.

Should Amazon revive it? No, but we’ll take an Alexa-equipped air fryer.

The Echo Input was a small puck-shaped dongle that used an audio cable or Bluetooth to bring music streaming capabilities and Amazon Alexa access to existing speakers and audio setups.

When it debuted in 2018, the ability to connect to Amazon’s smart assistant gave the Echo Input an advantage over Google’s Chromecast Audio. But since other Echo products could also be connected to existing speakers, the Input was redundant and eventually discontinued.

Should Amazon revive it? No.

Echo Link and Echo Link Amplifier

The Echo Link and Echo Link Amp offered similar functionality to the Echo Input, but with features aimed at people who used music services with higher quality audio streams. The $199.99 Echo Link included more output options than the Echo Input for connecting to an audio system’s receiver or amplifier, plus its own volume knob.

As the name implies, the $299.99 Echo Link Amp also included a built-in 60-watt amplifier, allowing it to be connected directly to speakers. Both products were intended to help Amazon compete with Sonos, but were discontinued within a few years.

Should Amazon revive it? No, just buy a Sonos.

By 2019, the compact Echo Dot had become one of the best-selling products on Amazon, and that same year it gained one of the most useful features. The Echo Dot with Clock had a four-digit, seven-segment LED display hidden beneath the fabric cover, making information like the time, weather, and timers accessible with just a quick glance. I

It would eventually be updated with a spherical design in 2020 and an improved LED dot matrix display in 2022, but that would be the last version. The Echo Dot with clock was discontinued in 2024 and replaced by the revival of the Echo Spot with a color LCD screen.

Should Amazon revive it? Yes, not every device needs a screen.

Amazon’s Echo Loop smart ring debuted in 2019 as a small portable Echo smart speaker. While companies like Oura were pushing smart rings as health tracking tools, the Echo Loop had a speaker and microphones so users could talk with their hands to communicate with Alexa.

While the Echo Loop allowed for discrete interactions, it had limited battery life, was expensive at $179.99, and the speaker was sometimes too quiet to actually hear. Smartwatches, headphones and smart glasses proved to be better ways to quietly communicate with smart assistants, and Amazon discontinued the Echo Loop a year later.

Should Amazon revive it? No, there are better applications for smart rings.

A voice-activated smart assistant is only useful if it is close enough to hear you. At $24.99, the Echo Flex, which debuted in 2019, was an affordable way to put Alexa in every room of your home.

The small smart speaker plugged directly into a wall socket and its functionality could be expanded via modular accessories, including a night light, motion sensor and digital clock.

But that clock accessory pushed the price of the Echo Flex closer to the Echo Dot with Clock, which had a better speaker for listening to music. The Echo Flex was eventually discontinued in 2023.

Should Amazon revive it? Yes, but integrate all the functionality of the modular accessories.