Why Amazon’s Echo Hub became my favorite way to control my smart home

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Many smart home enthusiasts, including myself, are tired of using dozens of apps on their phones to control smart devices in their homes. Although Ater alleviates this problem, the smart home connectivity standard still does not have enough support to eliminate the challenge.

As a result, many of us are left looking for smart displays that can give us quick access to control our devices. Some tech-savvy people may use a repurposed old wall-mounted tablet as a smart home control center, while others opt for a smart display like the Echo Show or Google Nest Hub that can already act as a smart home controller out of the box, among other things.

Also: 15+ Powerful Alexa Commands You Should Start Using at Home (No Subscription Required)

These devices always have their drawbacks. Amazon’s eco hub The smart home controller is designed to fill a gap in the market that these devices are not: a smart home controller and only that.

There are no frills with the Echo Hub. There are no spatial audio speakers attached to its base, no ultra-high-definition streaming, and no advertising displayed in standby mode. It serves no purpose other than being a smart home hub and controller.

Testing the Echo Hub over the past few months has been a refreshing experience. Its navigation is sorted into categories and widgets. At a glance, the Echo Hub displays your widgets taking up about two-thirds of the screen, with your routines and rooms on the left and device categories along the bottom. You can customize widgets and download more from the Widgets Store.

The 8-inch touchscreen display is wall-mountable, which is my preference. I’ve always wanted to reuse a tablet as a wall-mounted smart panel or prop it up on a flat surface using a tabletop stand.

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As its name indicates, the Echo Hub is a smart home control panel with the Alexa voice assistant. It also supports connecting Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Zigbee, Matter, Thread, and Sidewalk smart devices.

Wait, if Amazon already has an Echo Show, why create an Echo Hub? The Amazon Alexa smart home network is rapidly becoming one of the largest and most intuitive smart home automation systems available. System supports 100 million devices and it is compatible with most.

The Alexa app instantly connects new devices you add to your smart home with little effort on your part and lets you control devices from different manufacturers in one place. If a smart home device says it “works with Alexa,” you can trust that the technology will be easy to set up and control with the Alexa app, the voice assistant, and now the Echo Hub.

Also: I compared Ring and Blink security setups at home – this Amazon brand came out on top

I currently have four Echo Shows and four other Echo speakers, so I have a lot of Alexa in my house. As the Apple HomeKit house, I got an Echo speaker to see how Alexa performed against Siri.

I then got an Echo Show for my kitchen to listen to music or watch the news while making dinner and to control smart home devices, but also because I thought the display would give me a better view of my calendar, which wasn’t the case. The Echo Hub does exactly what it promises to do: give me a clear view of my smart home and a quick way to control it.

I’ve never been silent about the Echo Show’s shortcomings, especially as someone who uses technology daily. I dislike that I can’t control what’s displayed during standby, that Alexa only understands me 70% of the time, that the hardware itself is slow and sluggish, that an app like YouTube, which requires a browser, is very hard to navigate with your voice, and that smart home control is such a secondary feature.

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Because Alexa can handle so many different devices, maintain a reliable connection, and make routines easy to use, I hate to admit that I reach for it more often than my Apple Home app. amazon echo hub That puts all that convenience on my wall, within reach. I can easily run routines from the hub, arm or turn off my Ring alarm system, check my security cameras, adjust the downstairs thermostat, or turn the lights on or off when I go upstairs for the night.

During setup, when you ask Alexa to play something on the Echo Hub, you can choose which Echo device in your home to play the music on, since it’s not a speaker — another difference between the Echo Hub and other Echo devices. This approach means that if you still want to play music, you won’t get an Echo Hub instead of an Echo speaker, especially if you want smart speakers around your home.

Like many smart home users, I’m reluctant to give up completely to Alexa and Amazon due to privacy and security concerns, especially considering that the data is not controlled locally. Although companies may always claim to prioritize consumer privacy, you can only take them at face value when it comes to your personal information.

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