# Amazon Echo

6 Hacker News commenters recommended Amazon Echo and 27 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 5 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** People praise its wake word and voice pickup, but critics object to ads, Alexa+ upselling and listening or data-collection practices.

## Why people recommend it

- Strong wake word and voice pickup (5 comments): "Somehow nothing is even 50% good as my Echo devices at picking up the wake word" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47399332)) "nothing is even 50% good as my Echo devices at picking up the wake word" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47401421)) "My Echo can hear me over just about anything and I can hear it back" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46527522))

## What people warn about

- Listens and sends data to Amazon (4 comments): "Amazon devices connected to the internet WILL respond to whispertalk requests from airgapped devices" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46128604)) "We know for certain that they do listen to us even when they shouldn't and send that data" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49716479)) "Amazon used Echo devices for all kinds of invasive purposes other than advertised" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48724046))
- Ads and unsolicited Alexa+ pitches (5 comments): "they've enshittified those devices by becoming increasingly intrusive with adds and "did you know..." interjections" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50071347)) "The first inkling of advertising is immediate turn off and destroy, for me." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46212308)) "The "by the way..." nags irritated us so much we got rid of our two Echos" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50072839))
- Declined in usefulness over time (3 comments): "It literally does not support being taken seriously. So I've never even tried to do anything, since that very day, other than turning smart lights on and off." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48558252)) "all my echos seemed gimped for a while now and basically gave up on using them" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46501636)) "Then there was a big regression, and we stopped trying to make it do more." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48557699))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Amazon Alexa](https://hackerapproved.com/p/amazon-alexa.md): 45 recommend
- [Apple HomePod](https://hackerapproved.com/p/apple-homepod.md): 30 recommend
- [Google Home](https://hackerapproved.com/p/google-home.md): 19 recommend
- [Meta Portal](https://hackerapproved.com/p/meta-portal.md): 17 recommend
- [Home Assistant Voice Preview Edition](https://hackerapproved.com/p/home-assistant-voice-preview-edition.md): 14 recommend

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Amazon+Echo+smart+speaker+with+Alexa&tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Amazon Echo", https://hackerapproved.com/p/amazon-echo/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).