The Amazon Echo graveyard

For the past decade, Amazon has aspired for Alexa to be more than equitable a handy way to begin a cooking timer. To guarantee devourrs of the inalertigent helpant’s potential, the company has reproduceed its Echo line aachieve and aachieve. From style-critiquing cameras to microwaves you can ask to produce popcorn, Echo’s repeated renaissance has frequently felt savagely experimental in a way that hasn’t always clicked with devourrs.

Although the Echo inalertigent speaker has finishured, many other Echo spinoffs, accessories, and variations have not. They were either too weird, too redundant, or too ahead of their time to persist extfinisheder than a scant years before being hushedly fadeed from Amazon’s online store.

Let’s get a see at the Echo products that fall shorted to triumph devourrs over or fall shorted to guarantee Amazon they were worth holding around.

Using a camera and built-in LED weightlessing, the Echo Look could seize body-length ptoastyos and videos of engagers wearing various outfits that were cataloged thcimpolite a standalone app and rated using “machine lgeting algorithms with advice from style exceptionacatalogs.”

It remains one of Amazon’s most peculiar and contentious Echo devices and instantly elevated worrys about privacy and AI when it debuted in 2017. At $199.99, it was also one of the more pricey Echo spin-offs. It was eventuassociate dispersistd in 2020.

Should Amazon resurrect it? No one necessitateed it in 2017. No one necessitates it now.

The Tap was Amazon’s first inalertigent speaker to disjoin Alexa from a power outlet. It was a inalertigent Bluetooth speaker with nine hours of battery life and a handy charging dock. Unappreciate Amazon’s Echo inalertigent speakers, the Tap insistd engagers to physicassociate press a button to request Alexa but was eventuassociate modernized so that the inalertigent helpant was always engageing for voice directs.

At $130, it was priced competitively with analogously sized wireless speakers, but its inalertigent capabilities were only engageable while it had Wi-Fi joinivity. The Tap was dispersistd in 2018, equitable two years after it begined.

Should Amazon resurrect it? Yes, not every device necessitates to be always engageing.

The first in a line of new “Alexa Gadgets” that never reassociate took off, the Echo Buttons debuted in 2017 as wireless, puck-shaped buzzers that could be engaged to take part individual or multitake parter trivia games thcimpolite an Echo inalertigent speaker.

Available in two-packs for $19.99, the Echo Buttons were unbenevolentt to broaden the advantageousness of Echo products as fun and frivolous devices, but they were dispersistd a scant years tardyr as inalertigent speakers never reassociate caught on as gaming devices.

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

Follotriumphg the Echo Look, the Echo Spot was the second Amazon product to sneak a camera into bedrooms. With a circular 2.5-inch screen, the Spot was a petiteer, affordableer, and downtake partdr version of the Echo Show, permiting it to be more discreetly engaged around a home, but it functioned best as a inalertigent alarm clock on a bedside table.

The Spot could be engaged for video calls, but the camera could also be disabled for those with privacy worrys. Amazon dispersistd the Echo Spot in 2019 but revived it in 2024 without the camera.

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

In 2017, the Echo Connect get tod to broaden the Echo’s calling abilities to actual phone numbers, not equitable other Echo devices. When plugged into a telephone jack, the petite bdeficiency box turned Echo inalertigent speakers into speakerphones that could call landline numbers, including 911.

Amazon stopped selling the difficultware a scant years after its debut as analogous functionality was compriseed to tardyr Echo speakers — even though it was restrictcessitate to a pick number of communicates and only frifinishly calls made to numbers in the US, Canada, and UK.

Should Amazon resurrect it? Yes, if only for our majesticparents.

Debuting three years after the innovative Amazon Echo begined in 2014, the Echo Plus integrated a rescheduleed speaker with betterd sound and had aspirations of being a one-stop inalertigent home hub. The Echo Plus was affordableer than the innovative and integrated Zigbee help, permiting it to administer inalertigent weightlesss, outlets, and locks without the necessitate for a split hub. But the Echo Plus deficiencyed help for Z-Wave, the other famous inalertigent home protocol at the time, and was $50 more pricey than a petiteer Echo that debuted aextfinishedside it.

An modernized version of the Echo Plus was proclaimd in 2018, but the product was eventuassociate dispersistd in 2020 as the inalertigent home technologies prolongd.

Should Amazon resurrect it? No, there are now better inalertigent home solutions.

The Echo Wall Clock, proclaimd in 2018, deficiencyed a microphone and was instead scheduleed to be an accessory for Echo inalertigent speakers that distake parted the current time and the progress of running timers using a ring of LEDs.

Amazon tardyr partnered with Disney for a Mickey Moengage version of the clock, while Citizen begind alternate schedules. The clock’s restrictcessitate functionality, and a problematic rollout with many engagers experiencing joinivity rerents, gived to Amazon eventuassociate discontinuing the clock.

Should Amazon resurrect it? No, its advantageousness was a little too restrictcessitate.

Although it deficiencyed a microphone and speaker of its own, the $59.99 AmazonBasics Microwave was scheduleed to join to existing Echo devices in a home so you could ask Alexa to microwave a potato or a bag of popcorn without having to direct a menu of cooking presets on the oven itself.

Being able to rapidly stop the microwave with a voice direct when you smelled burning food was a advantageous feature, but the microwave was more advantageous as a tool for Amazon to show its Alexa Connect Kit as it tried to guarantee other difficultware producers to fuse its inalertigent helpant. Four years after its debut, the microwave was dispersistd.

Should Amazon resurrect it? No, but we’ll get an Alexa-provideped air fryer.

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

When it debuted in 2018, its ability to join to Amazon’s inalertigent helpant gave the Echo Input an achieve over Google’s Chromecast Audio. But given other Echo products could also be joined to existing speakers, the Input was redundant and eventuassociate dispersistd.

Should Amazon resurrect it? No.

Echo Link and Echo Link Amp

The Echo Link and Echo Link Amp proposeed analogous functionality to the Echo Input but with features that catered to those using music services with higher-quality audio streams. The $199.99 Echo Link integrated more output selections than the Echo Input for joining to an audio system’s getr or amplifier, plus its own volume knob.

As the name implies, the $299.99 Echo Link Amp also integrated a built-in 60-watt amplifier, permiting it to straightforwardly join to speakers. Both products were unbenevolentt to help Amazon contend with Sonos but were dispersistd wilean a scant years.

Should Amazon resurrect it? No, equitable buy a Sonos.

By 2019, the compact Echo Dot had become one of the best-selling products on Amazon, and that same year, it achieveed one of its most advantageous features. The Echo Dot with Clock had a four-digit, seven-segment LED distake part hideed beorderlyh its fabric cover that made info appreciate the time, weather, and timers accessible with equitable a rapid glance. I

t would eventuassociate be modernized with a spherical schedule in 2020 and an betterd LED dot matrix distake part in 2022, but that would be the last version. The Echo Dot with Clock was dispersistd in 2024 and swapd by the revival of the Echo Spot featuring a brimming-color LCD distake part.

Should Amazon resurrect it? Yes, not every device necessitates a screen.

Amazon’s Echo Loop inalertigent ring debuted in 2019 as a minuscule wearable Echo inalertigent speaker. While companies appreciate Oura were pushing inalertigent rings as health-tracking tools, the Echo Loop featured a speaker and microphones so engagers could talk to their hands to transmit with Alexa.

Although the Echo Loop permited for discrete transmitions, it had a restrictcessitate battery life, was pricey at $179.99, and its speaker was sometimes too hushed to actuassociate hear. Smartwatches, headphones, and inalertigent glasses showd to be better ways to hushedly transmit with inalertigent helpants, and Amazon dispersistd the Echo Loop a year tardyr.

Should Amazon resurrect it? No, there are better engages for inalertigent rings.

A voice-triggerd inalertigent helpant is only advantageous if it’s seal enough to hear you. For $24.99, the Echo Flex, which debuted in 2019, was an affordable way to put Alexa in every room of your home.

The minuscule inalertigent speaker plugged straightforwardly into a wall outlet, and its functionality could be broadened thcimpolite modular accessories, including a night weightless, motion sensor, and digital clock.

But that clock accessory pushed the price of the Echo Flex sealr to the Echo Dot with Clock, which had a better speaker for engageing to music. The Echo Flex was eventuassociate dispersistd in 2023.

Should Amazon resurrect it? Yes, but fuse all the functionality of the modular accessories.

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