The best Alexa-enabled or compatible devices to use with a smart speaker or monitor on your Echo.
Amazon’s Alexa is more than just asking for music to play, or the current outside temperature. This voice assistant can be used in a variety of ways with compatible Amazon Echo smart speakers and displays, from voice control of smart devices and two-way audio to flipping on the Philips Hue lights when walking into a room or checking who’s with Ring at your doorway.
In 2014 Amazon launched the first speaker for the Amazon Echo. Since then voice commands have become a growing part of how we interact with our smart home devices. For their own smart speakers and voice control, Google Assistant and Siri hopped on board but the Alexa digital assistant was the first to support digital integration in the smart home.
Echo Dot – Smart speaker with clock and Alexa
To create the Echo Dot with Clock, Amazon has added an LED clock to its third-gen smart speaker and it’s our favorite speaker for the price. This third-gen Dot 2019 not only boasts amazing sound due to its modest profile, but it also makes useful details — such as time, timers and outdoor temperature — easily available.
Although there are many Alexa devices to choose from, with its excellent efficiency, small footprint and sheer practicality, the Echo Dot with Clock leads the way. This pint-sized smart speaker at just $60 is an excellent entry point into the Amazon Alexa devices universe. Read a review of the Amazon Echo Dot with the Clock.
Arlo Pro 3 – Wire-Free Security 2 Camera System
Though it has a price tag of $500, the Arlo Pro 3 two-pack is a great security camera featuring local storage and 2 K streaming of high quality. The Arlo Pro 3 is our favorite high-end smart cam between its fast alerts and wide range of features, such as a built-in siren, motion sensor, color night vision and 12x zoom.
You can also view your camera stream on Echo smart displays, but Arlo ‘s previous 7-day free event-based cloud storage option is no longer available, so you’ll need to sign up for its monthly plans (starting at $3 a month) to store footage in the cloud.
Echo Show 8 – HD 8″ smart display with Alexa
The Amazon Echo Show 8 is the latest smart show Amazon has to sell. You get an eight-inch screen with the best resolution of any Echo Show yet for $130, a camera shutter and all the smarts of previous smart displays from Amazon.
The Echo Display 8 has an Alexa speaker built into it. That means you can use this smart display to ask Alexa to make your request, whether it’s asking her to play music, relay the weather, or just tell a joke to you. And since it’s a smart display it also offers advanced compatibility with security cameras supported by Alexa.
When someone rings your Ring Peephole Cam, ask Alexa to “open the front door” and you can see the live feed on your Show 8 — and actually talk to the guy, right from the smart display.
Kasa Smart Plug by TP-Link
The TP-Link Kasa Smart Wi-Fi Plug Mini is a great name for a small smart plug which costs only $30. A smart plug like this attaches directly to a wall outlet through your Wi-Fi link, which turns your non-smart lamps, fans and other gadgets into smart ones.
Connect and monitor devices using the TP-Link app — or recruit Alexa and use your voice. Say, “Alexa, turn on the reading lamp” to get the Mini Plug smart plug to easily control the devices that are connected to it.
Introducing Echo Flex – Plug-in mini smart speaker with Alexa
The Amazon Echo Flex is a tiny, smart speaker that plugs into an outlet directly. It offers all of Alexa’s smarts for $25, plus a USB port for additional modules — like a motion detector and night light.
The Flex can suit multiple roles as the name implies, helping to improve your home protection and expand the range of hearing for Alexa when you need support in less central corners of your house.
Adding a motion sensor also means Alexa can build movement-based automations, turn on lights when you enter a room, or deliver your morning news when you’re sitting down for breakfast.
Sonos One (Gen 2) – Voice Controlled Smart Speaker
There are louder speakers and some more portable, but no smart speaker is a better buy right now than the Sonos One (8/10, WIRED Recommended). In a number of areas it sets the bar, including sound quality, stable multiroom audio, and smart-home utility. Plus, it’s certainly compatible with whatever platform you prefer — it comes supported with Alexa but also supports Apple Airplay 2 and Google Assistant.
The Sonos One is virtually unrivalled on the audio front. Apple’s HomePod is the only voice-enabled speaker that we’ve used, but not by much. It connects to about 100 audio streaming services around the world , the majority of which are. It’s also one of the best smart speakers to purchase if you’re looking to create a home theater setup — it connects to bigger speakers from Sonos and their TV soundbar.
Sonos Beam – Smart TV Sound Bar with Amazon Alexa Built-in
The Sonos Beam (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is much like the Sonos One, but it’s a compact soundbar made for connecting to your television. It has off the box support for Alexa , Google Assistant, and Airplay (with some Siri). The main advantage is how it interacts seamlessly with other Sonos speakers, enabling you to create a surround-sound setup. You can also add a Sonos Sub to the mix to intensify the explosions on-screen.
The Beam isn’t the absolute best soundbar, but for most living rooms, it’s decent enough and its compact size makes it usable for many TV sizes. The Beam can play movies and TV shows with voice requests, if you own a Fire TV or Google Chromecast.
Echo Show (2nd Gen) – stay connected and in touch with Alexa
The Echo Show (7/10, WIRED Recommends) is a great alternative to the Nest Hub Max that is powered by Alexa. It is more usable than Alexa speakers from third parties, since it can call and network with other Echo speakers from Amazon. The new edition looks much better, with a full-size 10-inch screen, than the first Echo shows you may have seen.
Where it shines is the light. To do almost anything, you still have to talk to Alexa, but the screen lets you see what music you ‘re playing, pause the audio, skip to the next song, and view the lyrics on some Amazon Music tracks. You can also play videos from Amazon Prime, and has a video preview of Alexa’s daily update on flash news. Voice and video calls are supported although you will have to call another Echo device with a screen to do video.
Final Thoughts
Now is a wonderful time to buy any of those speakers. This year, there will be more new releases, but these should remain useful for several years, as many of the improvements are related to the services that power each digital assistant rather than the speaker hardware itself. Remember that none of these smart devices will last forever: like any product with a computer inside, any smart device will eventually become obsolete. Stick to things made by major brands and support the big ecosystems, and you’ll get more life out of your purchase in general. Even Sonos, who used to have excellent help track record, will be mothbalancing some of the older devices in 2020.
