The Echo Hub with Alexa is Amazon’s newest smart home control panel. This whole-home smart hub works with over 140,000 smart devices like thermostats, cameras, door locks, lights, wall plugs, speakers, and more. If your device works with Alexa, it’s likely this hub can control it.
Also, please note: Alexa will be seeing some serious improvements to her intelligence, as the company is changing things over to be more in line with conversational (generative) AI. That is certainly something to keep an eye out for, as it is sure to drastically improve our interactions with Alexa, and the products we use to talk to her.
The Echo Hub syncs with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth smart devices, as well as Matter, Thread, Zigbee, Sidewalk compatible smart products, which allows you to control those devices even when your internet is down. Pretty sweet deal!
Let’s see what makes the Echo Hub worth taking a look at.
Customize Your Echo Hub Dashboard
Your hub is the control center of your home, and you should be able to fully customize that to your needs—just as you design the interior of your home to reflect your personality and needs. The Echo Hub takes that into account, and you can choose the configuration of the widgets and controls displayed on your dashboard.
If you’re more concerned with security than you are with playing music, you can have your camera widget on the dashboard, and the control to arm your security system or lock your door. You can even create a routine that will arm that security system, lock the door, and adjust the lights, all with one tap on your Echo Hub’s dashboard.
The Echo Hub can, of course, play your music from a widget on the dashboard. You can also set it up to have your calendar, reminders, and lists easily available. It’s all about what you want your hub to do for you.
A Visual Assistant
Alexa can be quite helpful on any device, but on a hub like the Echo Hub, commands are made visual. When you ask Alexa to add something to your calendar or grocery list, you can see it happen. You can also ask her to check that calendar or list so you’re always up to date on what’s going on in your life. It’s an excellent time-saver and saves space in your mind for more important things. Ask Alexa to display your vacation photos, too, and enjoy a slideshow to bring you back to a fun, relaxing time.
Entertainment, Your Way
Your Echo Hub plays music directly and can also connect to compatible speakers within your home. Whether you’re looking to jam out to your favorite playlist, listen to a podcast, or enjoy an audiobook, the Echo Hub has you covered. You can, of course, pump out music through Amazon’s Echos and Dots, but you can do far more. For example, you can have Alexa play music through your Sonos speaker system…
Setup and Installation
Setup and installation of the Echo Hub is easy, and you have four options. The hub can be wall mounted wherever you have access to an outlet, giving a futuristic and convenient upgrade to your space. You can also use in-wall cable pass-throughs to hide the cords, so you can feed the cord through the wall to the outlet you desire to use. That is sold separately, though.
Also sold separately is the power-over-ethernet adapter option, which you’d have to make sure is compatible with the Echo Hub. The final option is to place it in its compatible stand. For me, I’d either go with wall mounting near an accessible outlet or on a counter with its stand, but I can’t argue against not having cables in my line of sight. I’m a sucker for good cable management. What can I say? I like a clean look.
Your Privacy is Important
With multi-level privacy protection, the Echo Hub allows the consumer to be in control. You can delete your voice recordings, turn the mic off with the press of a button, and more.
Low Carbon Footprint with the Echo Hub
The Echo Hub is designed with 27% recycled materials and the packaging is 100% recyclable. The device has a Low Power Mode that minimizes energy consumption when the hub is idle, excluding specific situations. When you’re ready to upgrade the Echo Hub to a new device, you can trade-in or recycle it using Amazon Second Chance. The Hub may not be carbon neutral, but adding one to your home won’t increase your footprint very much, considering the recycling and also the very low power draw of the Hub itself.
The Amazon Echo Hub—Coming Soon
The Echo Hub offers a sustainable smart home control panel in a small profile with vast compatibility. Companies like Ring, Blink, Philips Hue, SengLED, Yale, Honeywell, iRobot, and TP-Link all work with Alexa, among 140,000 other smart devices. Those include Matter and Thread, Zigbee, Sidewalk, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth products.
As of November 1st, the Echo Hub is not yet shipping, but is coming soon, and will be an exciting new smart product in the Amazon lineup. We expect there’s no reason why you can’t have one in time for the December holidays!
