Amazon Echo
Amazon Echo, often shortened to Echo, is a brand of smart speakers developed by Amazon. Echo devices connect to the voice-controlled intelligent personal assistant service, Alexa, which responds to a wake term when spoken by its user. The features of the device include voice interaction, audio program playback, such as music, streaming podcasts, and audiobooks, maintaining to-do lists, alarms, and scheduling reminders, in addition to providing weather, traffic and other real-time information. It can also control several smart devices, acting as a home automation hub.
Amazon started developing Echo devices inside its Lab126 offices in Silicon Valley and in Cambridge, Massachusetts as early as 2010. The device represented one of its first attempts to expand its device portfolio beyond the Kindle e-reader.
Amazon initially limited the first-generation Echo to Amazon Prime members or just by invitation, but it became widely available in the United States in mid-2015, and subsequently in other countries. Additionally, the Alexa voice service is available to be added to other devices, and Amazon encourages other companies' devices and services to connect to it.
History
Work on the Amazon Echo began in 2011, known as "Project D". It was named this because the Kindle was Project A and the Fire Phone was Project B. The Amazon Echo was an offshoot of Project C. Project C is unknown, even though the work on it has stopped. The Amazon Echo was originally supposed to be called the Amazon Flash. The wake word, the word that makes the device responsive, for the Echo used to be "Amazon". Both of these attributes were disliked by Lab126, the division of Amazon that conducts research and development and creates computer hardware. Lab126 believed that "Amazon" is too commonly used, and the device would react when it was not intended to. Jeff Bezos, the Amazon CEO, ended up being influenced by Lab126 to change the name of the device to the Amazon Echo and the wake word to "Alexa". The Amazon Echo was originally pitched as only a smart speaker, it was not intended to be a smart home hub until after it was launched. As Alexa, the artificial intelligence that powers the Amazon Echo, improved, the device became more a controlling center for smart home appliances. Dave Isbitski, the chief developer evangelist for the Echo and Alexa, received calls from smart home manufacturers to discuss connecting their devices, after the release of the Amazon Echo. But smart home devices had a problem: people were not buying them because they often required an extra app in order to be used, which was not much better than just using the device manually.The Amazon Echo was released in 2014 alongside the voice of the product, Alexa. Alexa is a voice associated with the Amazon Echo that responds to questions and requests through artificial intelligence. Amazon has claimed that the voice of Alexa was inspired by electronic communications systems featured in the television series Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek: The Next Generation. The Echo was announced on Nov 6, 2014 and available by invitation only. It became available to all customers on July 14, 2015.
The Echo featured prominently in Amazon's first Super Bowl broadcast television advertisement in 2016.
In March 2016 Amazon released a less expensive version of the Amazon Echo, called the Amazon Echo Dot. This device is an ice hockey puck sized version of the original Amazon Echo released in 2014, and it has the same capabilities. This product was designed to be used in smaller rooms such as bedrooms due to its limited speaker capabilities or to be paired with an external speaker. In November 2016 the second generation of the Echo Dot was released for a lower price with improved voice recognition and new colors.
The second generation of the Amazon Echo was released in October 2017. This update offered better voice recognition and a fabric covering exterior. Subsequently, other variants of the Amazon Echo have been released.
In May 2017 Amazon released the since-discontinued Amazon Tap, a portable, slightly smaller version of the Amazon Echo. Although the two products are similar the Tap is battery powered, portable, and requires the touch of a button in order to enable voice commands.
In April 2017 the Amazon Echo Look was released to invitees only, as an Amazon Echo with a built in camera. It was designed as a speaker, that has smart algorithms to help users pick out outfits. It was released to the general public in August 2018. The Look was phased out in 2020.
In June 2018 the Amazon Echo Show was released to the public as a device with a 7-inch screen used for streaming media, making video calls and using Alexa. The second generation of the device was made available in November 2018 and features a screen with improved speakers.
On September 30, 2025, Amazon held its annual Devices and Services event in New York City. The company announced updates across multiple product categories, including new Echo speakers, Fire TV hardware, and Kindle devices. A notable highlight was the reported development of a Linux-based operating system, Vega OS, intended to replace FireOS on Fire TV products and potentially extend to other Amazon hardware. The event also marked the continued rollout of Alexa+, Amazon’s generative AI–powered assistant, following its limited early access launch earlier in the year.
Features
Overview of operation
In the default mode, the device continuously listens to all speech, monitoring for the wake word to be spoken, which is primarily set up as "Alexa". Echo's microphones can be manually disabled by pressing a mute button to turn off the audio processing circuit.Echo devices require a wireless Internet connection in order to work. Echo's voice recognition capability is based on Amazon Web Services and the voice platform Amazon acquired from Yap, Evi, and IVONA. The device requires one time setup by pairing it with Amazon's Alexa app, which gives the user more control over features.
The smart speakers perform well with a "good" Internet connection, which minimizes processing time due to minimal communication round trips, streaming responses and geo-distributed service endpoints. While the application is free, an Amazon account is required, and setup is not possible without one.
Available services
Echo devices offer weather from AccuWeather and news from a variety of sources, including local radio stations, BBC, NPR, and ESPN from TuneIn and iHeartRadio. Echo can play music from the owner's Amazon Music accounts and has built-in support for other streaming music services like Apple Music, Spotify, Deezer, Pandora and Sirius XM among others, and has support for IFTTT and Nest thermostats. Echo can also play music from non-compatible music streaming services such as Google Play Music from a phone or tablet via Bluetooth. Echo maintains voice-controlled alarms, timers, shopping and to-do lists and can access Wikipedia articles. Echo will respond to questions about items in one's Google Calendar. It also integrates with Yonomi, Philips Hue, Belkin Wemo, SmartThings, Insteon, and Wink. Additionally, integration with the Echo is in the works for Countertop by Orange Chef, Sonos, Scout Alarm, Garageio, Toymail, MARA, and Mojio. Questions like "Who is Barack Obama?" are answered by reading the first few lines of the corresponding Wikipedia article.Echo devices also have access to "skills" built with the Alexa Skills Kit. These are third-party-developed voice applications which add functionality to any Alexa-enabled device. Examples of skills include the ability to play music, answer general questions, set an alarm, order a pizza or a ridesharing car, and so on. The Alexa Skills Kit is a collection of self-service application programming interfaces , tools, documentation and code samples. Developers can also use the "Smart Home Skill API", a new addition to the Alexa Skills Kit, to extend Alexa's compatibility with cloud-controlled lighting and thermostat devices. All of the code runs in the cloud and nothing is on any user device. A developer can follow tutorials to learn how to build voice-response capability for their new and existing applications.
In November 2018, Amazon added Skype calling ability to all of their Echo products. Echo devices that have a display have access to video calling.
In May 2019, Amazon released Alexa Guard. If "Away mode" is enabled and an Echo device detects the sound of smoke alarms, carbon monoxide alarms, or glass breaking, it will send alerts to the Alexa app on smartphones. If the user has professional monitoring, it can send alerts directly to the security provider. It can also switch smart lights on and off to make it look like someone is home. A paid feature called Guard Plus enables other features such as playing the sound of a dog barking when an intruder is detected.