The Echo ecosystem has seen its fair share of failures while trying to popularize Amazon’s Alexa smart assistant.
For the past decade, Amazon has aspired for Alexa to be more than just a convenient way to start a cooking timer. To convince consumers of the smart assistant’s potential, the company has reinvented its Echo line again and again. From fashion-critiquing cameras to microwaves you can ask to make popcorn, Echo’s repeated renaissance has often felt wildly experimental in a way that hasn’t always clicked with consumers.
Although the Echo smart speaker has endured, many other Echo spinoffs, accessories, and variations have not. They were either too weird, too redundant, or too ahead of their time to survive longer than a few years before being quietly disappeared from Amazon’s online store.
Let’s take a look at the Echo products that failed to win consumers over or failed to convince Amazon they were worth keeping around.
Using a camera and built-in LED lighting, the Echo Look could capture body-length photos and videos of users wearing various outfits that 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 and immediately raised concerns about privacy and AI when it debuted in 2017. At $199.99, it was also one of the more expensive Echo spin-offs. It was eventually discontinued in 2020.
Should Amazon resurrect it? No one needed it in 2017. No one needs it now.
Amazon Tap
The Tap was Amazon’s first smart speaker to disconnect Alexa from a power outlet. It was a smart Bluetooth speaker with nine hours of 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 while it had Wi-Fi connectivity. The Tap was discontinued in 2018, just two years after it launched.
Should Amazon resurrect it? Yes, not every device needs to be always listening.
Echo Buttons
The first in a line 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 multiplayer trivia games through an Echo smart speaker.
Available in two-packs for $19.99, the Echo Buttons were meant to expand the usefulness of Echo products as fun and playful devices, but they were discontinued a few years later as smart speakers never really caught on as gaming devices.
Should Amazon resurrect it? No, we have better ways to game.
Following 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 smaller, cheaper, and subtler version of the Echo Show, allowing it to be more discreetly used around a home, but it functioned best as a smart alarm clock on a bedside table.
The Spot could be used for video calls, but the camera could also be disabled for those with privacy concerns. Amazon discontinued the Echo Spot in 2019 but revived it in 2024 without the camera.
Should Amazon resurrect it? It’s already back from the dead.
Echo Connect
In 2017, the Echo Connect arrived to expand the Echo’s calling abilities to actual phone numbers, not just other Echo devices. When plugged into a telephone jack, the small black box turned Echo smart speakers into speakerphones 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 — even though it was limited to a select number of contacts and only outgoing calls made to numbers in the US, Canada, and UK.
Should Amazon resurrect it? Yes, if only for our grandparents.
Debuting three years after the original Amazon Echo launched in 2014, the Echo Plus included a redesigned speaker with improved sound and had aspirations of being a one-stop smart home hub. The Echo Plus was cheaper than the original and included Zigbee support, allowing it to control smart lights, outlets, 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 eventually discontinued in 2020 as the smart home technologies evolved.
Should Amazon resurrect it? No, there are now better smart home solutions.
Echo Wall Clock
The Echo Wall Clock, announced in 2018, lacked a microphone and was instead designed to be an accessory for Echo smart speakers that displayed the current time and the progress of running timers using a ring of LEDs.
Amazon later partnered with Disney for a Mickey Mouse version of the clock, while Citizen introduced alternate designs. The clock’s limited functionality, and a problematic rollout with many users experiencing connectivity issues, contributed to Amazon eventually discontinuing the clock.
Should Amazon resurrect it? No, its usefulness was a little too limited.
AmazonBasics Microwave
Although it lacked a microphone and speaker of its own, the $59.99 AmazonBasics Microwave was designed to connect to existing Echo devices in a home so you could ask Alexa to microwave a potato or a bag of popcorn without having to navigate a menu of cooking presets on the oven itself.
Being able to quickly stop the microwave with a voice command when 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 as it tried to convince other hardware makers to integrate its smart assistant. Four years after its debut, the microwave was discontinued.
Should Amazon resurrect it? No, but we’ll take an Alexa-equipped air fryer.
Echo Input
The Echo Input was a small puck-shaped dongle that used an audio cable or Bluetooth to bring music-streaming capabilities and access to Amazon Alexa to existing speakers and audio setups.
When it debuted in 2018, its ability to connect to Amazon’s smart assistant gave the Echo Input an advantage over Google’s Chromecast Audio. But given other Echo products could also be connected to existing speakers, the Input was redundant and eventually discontinued.
Should Amazon resurrect it? No.
Echo Link and Echo Link Amp
The Echo Link and Echo Link Amp offered similar 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 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 directly connect to speakers. Both products were meant to help Amazon compete with Sonos but were discontinued within a few years.
Should Amazon resurrect it? No, just buy a Sonos.
Echo Dot with Clock
By 2019, the compact Echo Dot had become one of the best-selling products on Amazon, and that same year, it gained one of its most useful features. The Echo Dot with Clock had a four-digit, seven-segment LED display hidden beneath its fabric cover that made info like the time, weather, and timers accessible with just a quick glance. I
t 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 featuring 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 tiny wearable Echo smart speaker. While companies like Oura were pushing smart rings as health-tracking tools, the Echo Loop featured a speaker and microphones so users could talk to their hands to interact with Alexa.
Although the Echo Loop allowed for discrete interactions, it had a limited battery life, was expensive at $179.99, and its speaker was sometimes too quiet to actually hear. Smartwatches, headphones, and smart glasses proved to be better ways to quietly interact with smart assistants, and Amazon discontinued the Echo Loop a year later.
Should Amazon resurrect it? No, there are better uses for smart rings.
A voice-activated smart assistant is only useful if it’s close 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 tiny smart speaker plugged directly into a wall outlet, and its functionality could be expanded through 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 resurrect it? Yes, but integrate all the functionality of the modular accessories.
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