What Is the Amazon Echo Spot?

A compact version of the Echo Show, the Amazon Echo Spot is an alarm-clock-sized Alexa voice-controlled device with a 2.5-inch diameter round screen and a built-in camera. The Echo Spot provides the same hands-free features as other Amazon Echo devices in a compact unit with an added visual benefit.

What You Can Do With the Amazon Echo Spot

Your Amazon Echo Spot has a wide array of uses.

Calling

With an Amazon Echo Spot, make free hands-free voice calls to anyone in the United States, Canada, or Mexico. You can also make free video calls with the built-in camera to anyone who has an Amazon Echo Show, Echo Spot, or smartphone with the Alexa app.

Alexa Skills

You can also take advantage of Alexa skills. With tens of thousands of skills or tasks Alexa can perform, you can ask Alexa to help with almost anything you can imagine. Ask Alexa to add a skill you need to customize your experience to your needs, and new Alexa skills are being added continuously.

More Than a Smart Alarm Clock

Sometimes called a “smart alarm clock,” the Spot is capable of so much more. It can be your wake-up call but also your kitchen timer, to-do list tracker, shopping list keeper, and calendar monitor to remind you of important appointments.

It can also make reservations for that lunch date with your mother-in-law, help book travel arrangements, and even sync your updates to your family through the Alexa app.

With your Echo Spot, Alexa can tell you the weather forecast, provide news briefs, and even answer questions by looking up the information for you online. Ask Alexa to provide your daily horoscope, check stats from your Fitbit, play games like Jeopardy!, be your meditation guide, and even help you track your water intake.

Control Other Devices

While it's not officially a smart home hub, like the Amazon Echo Plus, its Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity allows the Echo Spot to control devices that use those technologies. Depending on the smart home devices you have, the Spot may be able to work with your smart light bulbs, smart TV, smart door locks, smart thermostats, and even smart ceiling fans.

The Echo Spot can also work with compatible video cameras, such as the Amazon Cloud Cam, video doorbells, smart baby monitors and nursery cameras, or a camera anywhere else in your home you want to keep an eye on. What to know who's at the door? Just ask Alexa, and your Spot will let you see who’s knocking.

Drop-In

The Amazon Echo Spot includes the Drop-In feature that allows you to instantly visually connect to an Echo Spot, Echo Show, or smartphone with the Alexa App in another room of your home or approved close family and friends.

Music and Entertainment

Stream Pandora, Spotify, iHeartRadio, podcasts, and Audible audiobooks. The Echo Spot can also sync with other Echo devices in your home to play your audio in any room you choose, or your entire house.

Amazon Prime members can use the Echo Spot to listen to music through Prime Music and display song lyrics on the screen (if you don’t have Prime, Amazon Music Unlimited offers a specially priced subscription for Echo devices that can also play song lyrics).

Watch Amazon shows, videos, and Amazon Prime movies on your Spot with Prime Video. You can even order items with your Prime membership just by asking Alexa, and your order ships out free.

Inside the Amazon Echo Spot

The Echo Spot is a round-shaped device that weighs 14.8 oz. and measures 4.1 x 3.8 x 3.6 inches, with a slanted 2.5-inch-diameter round screen.

The Spot includes a 1.4-inch speaker. For more robust sound, the Spot can connect with and stream audio to other Echo devices; it's compatible with Wi-Fi or Bluetooth speakers, or you can use the Spot’s 3.5 mm audio output option to connect a physical speaker.

A front-facing camera is positioned above the viewing screen for video calling. When privacy is preferred, the Echo Spot has a button on the back that turns the microphones and built-in camera off or on.

The Echo Spot uses four microphones, second-generation far-field technology, enhanced noise cancellation, and beamforming technology to hear you from a distance or even when the TV or music is playing in the background.

If you have more than one Echo device, Alexa uses Echo Spatial Perception (ESP) to determine which Echo device is closest to you to respond from.

The Spot is dual-band Wi-Fi-enabled and Bluetooth-enabled to connect and communicate with other devices in your home.

How to Set up the Amazon Echo Spot

Setting up the Echo Spot requires only a few simple steps:

1. Plug the Echo Spot into a power outlet.

2. Connect to the internet (Wi-Fi).

3. Sign in to the Alexa app on your smartphone or tablet to sync your Echo Spot and enable the full set of features and functionality of Alexa for your Spot, such as enabling new skills, connecting to smart home devices, and more.

4. You’re all set! Ask Alexa anything. Alexa uses artificial intelligence to learn your vocabulary, speech patterns, and recognize your voice to build a user profile that gets smarter the more you use it.