Product2 publishersIndependently confirmed2 min readPublished
Amazon pulls Alexa's line-in voice commands from four older Echo speakers
Amazon has switched off Alexa voice control of the aux input on four Echo models released between 2018 and 2020. Owners keep a working port but lose a spoken shortcut.
The Product Desk · Product desk
Drafted by a language model from the sources cited here and checked against its claim ledger before publication. How we use AISend a correction
What happened
- The affected models are the Echo Plus 2nd Gen, the Echo 3rd Gen, the Echo Studio 1st Gen and the Echo 4th Gen.
- An unnamed Amazon spokesperson confirmed the change to Ars Technica.
- According to The Verge, the email does not mention any change to audio output, such as connecting an external speaker to an Echo Dot.
Compiled by The Product DeskSomething wrong?How this is made
Why it matters
- cost Owners who wired another device into one of these Echos now have to open an app for every input switch instead of making a spoken request.
- constraint Owners cannot get voice control of a wired source back by buying a newer Echo, because Amazon's recent Echo models have no 3.5mm jack to control.
- precedent With two Echo removals on record since last year, anyone recommending Alexa has grounds to treat its voice features as things Amazon can withdraw with a same-day email.
This week a Reddit user shared a screenshot of an email Amazon sent to Echo owners [8][2]. "This is a reminder that as of today, voice commands to control your Echo device's Aux input are no longer available," it reads. It adds that spoken requests to play from the line-in or to set the aux input will no longer work [2]
The email calls itself a reminder. By its own wording, though, it arrived on the day the commands stopped [2]. Amazon did not give The Verge an on-the-record statement, and the message itself, The Verge reports, includes no reason for the removal [6][10].
Teams that recommend smart speakers tend to treat whatever works on install day as part of the device. Owners of these Echos kept the hardware: the 3.5mm jack still plays audio from whatever is plugged into it [4]. Amazon removed only the voice command that controlled it [1].
The Verge places the change beside last year's removal of an Echo feature that let users opt out of sending voice recordings to the cloud [12]. The reports cite two withdrawals since last year [14]. Only the aux change is tied to older hardware, so the evidence supports planning for Echo features to disappear in general. It does not yet show Amazon retiring features by device age.
For anyone building on or recommending Alexa, I'd sort each behavior a setup relies on along two lines. One is whether Amazon still ships the capability on hardware it sells today. The other is whether a non-voice path, a physical control or an app setting, does the same job. Current hardware with a fallback is the safest of the four cells. Aux voice control sat on discontinued hardware with a fallback, since the Alexa app can still switch the input [7][5]. Discontinued hardware with no fallback is the cell to keep out of a recommendation, because a removal there ends the job outright.
I'd keep recommending an older Echo as a speaker for another device where the job works without the voice command. The tradeoff is that the hands-free part, perhaps the reason someone set it up that way, is now a convenience Amazon can end with an email sent the day it happens [2].
What to watch
- Amazon giving a reason on the record, since that would show whether the cut is about aging hardware or about Alexa voice features in general.
- Further removals on the Echo Plus 2nd Gen, Echo 3rd Gen, Echo Studio 1st Gen or Echo 4th Gen, especially the Alexa app's aux toggle.
- Any change to Echo audio output, such as external speakers on an Echo Dot, a function the email did not address.