For the past decade, Amazon has wanted Alexa to be more than just a convenient way to start a timer. To convince consumers of the intelligent assistant’s potential, the company has reinvented the Echo line multiple times. From fashion-critic cameras to microwave ovens you could ask for popcorn, Echo’s recurring renaissance has often been wildly experimental in ways that haven’t always appealed to consumers.
While the Echo smart speaker has survived, many other Echo products, accessories, and variations have not. They were either too weird, too redundant, or too ahead of their time to last more than a few years before quietly disappearing from Amazon’s online store.
Let’s take a look at the Echo products that haven’t convinced consumers or convinced Amazon that they’re worth having.
The Verge examines how far the voice assistant has come in a decade: its successes, failures, and potential future.
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Using its camera and built-in LED lighting, Echo Look can capture full-body photos and videos of users wearing different outfits, which have been cataloged using a third-party app and rated using “machine learning algorithms with advice from fashion experts.”
It remains one of Amazon’s most peculiar and controversial Echo devices, and immediately raised concerns about privacy and artificial intelligence when it debuted in 2017. At $199.99, it was also one of the more expensive Echo spin-offs. It was finally discontinued in 2020.
Should Amazon resurrect it? Nobody needed that in 2017. Nobody needs this now.
The Tap was Amazon’s first smart speaker to disconnect Alexa from the electrical outlet. It was a smart Bluetooth speaker with nine hours of battery life and a convenient charging station. Unlike Amazon’s Echo smart speakers, Tap required users to physically press a button to summon Alexa, but it was eventually updated so that the smart assistant always listened to voice commands.
At $130, it was competitively priced with similarly sized wireless speakers, but its smart capabilities were only available when it was equipped with Wi-Fi connectivity. Tap was discontinued in 2018, just two years after its release.
Should Amazon resurrect it? Yes, not every device needs to be listening all the time.
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The first in a line of new “Alexa gadgets” that never really gained popularity, Echo Buttons debuted in 2017 as wireless puck-shaped buzzers that could be used to play single- or multi-player trivia games via an Echo smart speaker.
Available in a two-pack for $19.99, Echo Buttons were intended to expand the usefulness of Echo products as fun and entertaining devices, but were discontinued a few years later because smart speakers never really gained popularity as gaming devices.
Should Amazon resurrect it? No, we have better ways to play.
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After the Echo Look, the Echo Spot was the second Amazon product to sneak a camera into the bedroom. With a round 2.5-inch screen, the Spot was a smaller, cheaper and subtler version of the Echo Show, allowing it to be used more discreetly at home, but it worked best as a smart alarm clock on the bedside table.
Spot can be used for video calls, but you can also turn off the camera for those with privacy concerns. Amazon discontinued the Echo Spot in 2019, but relaunched it in 2024 without the camera.
Should Amazon resurrect it? He’s already back from the dead.
In 2017, Echo Connect arrived to extend Echo’s calling capabilities to actual phone numbers, not just other Echo devices. When plugged into a telephone socket, the little black box turned Echo smart speakers into hands-free kits that could call landline numbers, including 911.
Amazon stopped selling the hardware a few years after its debut, as similar functionality was added to later Echo speakers – although it was limited to a select number of contacts and only outgoing calls to numbers in the US, Canada and the UK.
Should Amazon resurrect it? Yes, at least for our grandparents.
Photo: Dan Seifert / The Verge
Debuting three years after the original Amazon Echo launched in 2014, Echo Plus featured a redesigned speaker with improved audio and had aspirations to be a one-stop smart home hub. The Echo Plus was cheaper than the original and included Zigbee support, allowing you to control smart lights, sockets and locks without the need for a separate hub. However, the Echo Plus did not support Z-Wave, another popular smart home protocol at the time, and was $50 more expensive than the smaller Echo that debuted alongside it.
An updated version of Echo Plus was announced in 2018, but the product was ultimately discontinued in 2020 as smart home technology evolved.
Should Amazon resurrect it? No, there are better smart home solutions now.
Photo: Dan Seifert / The Verge
Announced in 2018, the Echo wall clock did not have a microphone and was instead designed as an accessory for Echo smart speakers, which displayed the current time and timer progress via a ring of LEDs.
Amazon later partnered with Disney to create a version of the Mickey Mouse clock, and Citizen introduced alternative designs. The clock’s limited functionality and problematic rollout that left many users with connectivity issues contributed to Amazon ultimately discontinuing the clock.
Should Amazon resurrect it? No, its usefulness was a bit too limited.
Photo Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
Although it lacked its own microphone and speaker, the $59.99 AmazonBasics microwave was designed to connect to existing Echo devices in your home, so you could ask Alexa to microwave potatoes or a bag of popcorn without having to move around. cooking settings menu in the oven itself.
The ability to quickly stop the microwave using a voice command when you smell burning food was a useful feature, but the microwave proved more useful for Amazon as a tool to demonstrate its Alexa Connect Kit as it tried to convince other appliance makers to integrate its smart solutions assistant. Four years after its debut, the microwave was discontinued.
Should Amazon resurrect it? No, but we’ll take an Alexa-equipped air fryer.
Photo: Dieter Bohn / The Verge
The Echo Input was a small puck-shaped dongle that used an audio cable or Bluetooth to provide the ability to stream music and access Amazon Alexa to existing speakers and audio setups.
When it debuted in 2018, the ability to connect to Amazon’s intelligent assistant gave Echo Input an edge over Google’s Chromecast Audio. However, given that other Echo products could also be connected to existing speakers, the input turned out to be unnecessary and was ultimately discontinued.
Should Amazon resurrect it? NO.
Echo Link and Echo Link Amp offered similar functionality to Echo Input, but with features tailored to people using music services with higher quality audio streams. The $199.99 Echo Link includes more output options than an Echo Input for connecting to an audio system’s receiver or amplifier, as well as its own volume knob.
As its name suggests, 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 resurrect it? No, just buy a Sonos.
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By 2019, the compact Echo Dot had become one of Amazon’s best-selling products, and in the same year it gained one of its most useful features. The Echo Dot with Clock had a four-digit, seven-segment LED display hidden under a fabric cover, making information such as the time, weather and timers available at a glance. AND
t will eventually be updated with a spherical design in 2020 and an improved LED dot matrix display in 2022, but this would be the last version. The Echo Dot with clock was discontinued in 2024 and replaced by the refurbished Echo Spot with a full-color LCD display.
Should Amazon resurrect 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 promoted smart rings as health trackers, Echo Loop included a speaker and microphones that allowed users to talk to their hands to interact with Alexa.
Although the Echo Loop allowed for discreet interactions, it had limited battery life, was expensive ($179.99), and its speaker was sometimes too quiet to hear. Smartwatches, headphones, and smart glasses proved to be better ways to silently interact with smart assistants, and a year later, Amazon discontinued the Echo Loop.
Should Amazon resurrect it? No, there are better uses for smart rings.
Photo: Dan Seifert / The Verge
A voice-activated smart assistant is only useful when it’s 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 in your home.
A small smart speaker that plugs directly into a wall socket and can be expanded with modular accessories, including a night light, motion sensor and digital clock.
But this clock accessory brought the price of the Echo Flex closer to the Echo Dot with clock, which had a better speaker for listening to music. Echo Flex was finally discontinued in 2023.
Should Amazon resurrect it? Yes, but it integrates all the functionality of modular accessories.
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