Amazon Echo Builds a Virtual Assistant Into a Home, Office Speaker

Amazon’s Echo—a free-standing speaker that’s connected to the Internet—not only can answer questions, but can also play music and switch on lights.

The feature that means the most to Echo’s functionality is voice commands. The device is always listening to its surroundings, and with a simple voice command, users can do a variety of things, such as play music, set timers, set alarms or retrieve articles from Wikipedia. The idea for Echo is to be there when users need it and respond accordingly.

The Echo is a slender, cylindrical device that can fit in any room or office as unobtrusively as a stereo speaker. But it does a lot more that project sound—its design include seven microphones that listen to voice commands in 360 degrees. But like any stereo accessory, it comes with enhanced noise cancellation, a subwoofer and a speaker, all packed into its design.

One of the nicer things about Echo is that it works in multiple rooms. So, while Echo may be connected in one room, users can carry around a remote built by Amazon that has a microphone. When users are in another room, they can communicate with Echo and send it commands through the voice-enabled remote.

The software that lives inside of Echo is called Alexa. Yes, like Cortana and Siri, Amazon has decided to give its smart assistant software a feminine name. And like those platforms, the software is capable of interpreting commands and responding with relevant answers. Alexa, which lives on Amazon’s cloud infrastructure, is designed to become more adept at understanding voice commands, vocabulary and personal preferences as it becomes more familiar with user behaviors.

To its credit, Amazon hasn’t forced Echo owners to only use its own platforms. Instead, the company’s device accesses music libraries or audio books from iTunes, Audible and Pandora, as well retrieves news updates and audio streams from local radio stations, ESPN and other sources.

While it may be nice to see all of those software platforms running on Echo, expect even more to do so. Amazon says that it’s continually updating Echo—either through its cloud platform via Alexa or by supporting additional applications. That’s good news for Echo owners who may eventually like to see support for other services, including the recently launched Apple Music.

Since it supports Pandora and other audio platforms, Echo needs to deliver good-quality sound—and it does. The hardware comes with a 2.5-inch woofer and a 2-inch speaker. While that may not be enough to overwhelm people, it’s sufficient for most uses, like listening to music or filling a room with text from an audiobook.

For Echo to live up to its charge of being a hardware-based assistant, it needs to answer questions. The device achieves that by allowing users to ask Alexa questions and have her seek out answers from services such as Wikipedia. The software also allows for simple definitions and answers to “common questions.”

Smart home integration could be the secret feature that ultimately makes Echo popular among the more tech-savvy crowd. The device includes support for smart devices from Wink, WeMo, Philips Hue and several other smart home platforms. Thanks to that support, users can tell Echo to “turn off the lights” or other functions and it’ll send the command to the connected products. It’s a neat function that keeps users sitting on the couch rather than getting up to turn off the lights.

Although it suffered from some availability problems at the onset, the Amazon Echo is now available to ship immediately. The device is available for $180 and is the top-seller in Amazon’s Home Audio Speakers business. Overall, it provides a solid value for all users.