All About the Amazon Echo Show

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Since its U.S. release in June 2017, the Amazon Echo Show smart speaker has been widely praised for its numerous, often evolving capabilities. The star of the Echo product line, the Amazon Show is currently compatible with Alexa and has a built-in smart hub for connecting to several other household smart devices and brands, which allows for an impressive number of tasks to be completed with a simple voice command.

Following the redesigned Second Generation Echo Show launched in September 2018, the just-released Echo Show 5, gives you all the same great features with a compact 5.5-inch screen. Take a look at what the Amazon Echo Show can do.

Connect with Zigbee-supported brands like Philips Hue, Yale smart locks, Honeywell thermostats and more to ensure optimal compatibility. 

Amazon Echo Show can do everything from stream music to turn lights on and off, play the weather forecast, find and show movies, make video calls and even check to see who’s at your front door. Not sure what you may already have that’s compatible? Ask Alexa to “show you your devices,” and she will find and report what’s in range and help you set them up.

Search for and play music, find recipes, listen to jokes, hear stories on Audible, create grocery lists, check calendars and set timers. 

If you’re prepping dinner for date night and suddenly forget the ingredients for your mate’s favorite ratatouille, don’t fret. Ask Alexa to find you a step-by-step recipe. You can also search for the perfect dinner music via Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify and Apple Music, set timers and/or alarms for meal prep or otherwise,  create grocery lists, monitor daily to-do lists, check calendars and hear newscasts.

Watch movies, videos, live TV and sports. 

The Amazon Show works not only with Prime Video (when you set up your Prime account), but users can also set up a Hulu subscription for live TV and sports programs and news briefings. Plus, there’s always Dailymotion, Vimeo and Vevo videos. When you’re ready for her to find your favorites, just ask, “Alexa, play (title of show/movie) on Amazon Prime Video,” or “Alexa, play Jonas Brothers music videos,” etc., to get the closest search results on your screen.

Make video calls to friends/family who use Skype, Echo Spot, the Alexa app or Echo Show, or “Drop In” to check on the elderly. 

The Show allows you to make voice and video calls and send messages to anyone who uses Skype, Echo Spot, the Alexa app or another Show, both in town and in over 150 countries. The handy Drop In feature lets you check in on elderly or sick contacts who have compatible home security devices (or a Show of their own) by automatically starting a call unannounced. The Show also has motion detection that alerts to wake its screen whenever someone enters the room.

Alexa’s resume is already brimming with skills (over 50,000) and she’s learning all the time. 

When you’re ready to see what she can do, say “Alexa, get me started with skills.” She’ll do everything from meditating with you to playing Jeopardy to walking you through the steps of tying a bow tie. Want to create your own custom skills? Try Alexa’s Skill Blueprints.

Monitor your front door camera, check locks, check mail, close garage doors and more. 

Who’s at the door? Ask Alexa to see who it is with your Ring Video Doorbell. You can also tell Alexa to lock (or unlock) your front door, ask Mailbox Assistant to check your mailbox, tell Smart Garage to close all doors and turn on your porch light to light the way for incoming guests.

It’s simple to set up and use. 

The best part of using the Amazon Echo Show with Alexa is how easy it is to set up. Just plug it in, connect to the internet and start working with Alexa. An Amazon’s Choice product, the Echo Show maintains 4.4 out of 5 stars after 3,800+ customer reviews (i.e. people love it!). Available in charcoal, heather gray and sandstone. Buy it here.

Have we convinced you? Let us know if you’re getting the Amazon Echo Show – and if you already have one, tell us what you love about it –  in the comments below.