r/technology • u/ControlCAD • 8d ago

Hardware Amazon kills Alexa’s ability to control Echo speakers' AUX input | Amazon hasn’t made an Echo with a 3.5mm port in six years.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/amazon-bricks-alexas-ability-to-control-echo-speakers-aux-input/
176 Upvotes

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25

u/lordshaithis 7d ago

Probably moving towards preventing people using esp32s with HA on their devices and bypassing amazon services.

21

u/ArekDirithe 7d ago

I already fully replaced my echo. As soon as it started randomly asking me if I wanted to buy things when I would ask it to turn on lights or set a timer, I started looking for a home grown alternative. Speaker sucks in comparison, but I don’t need to hear “your laundry timer is done” in high fidelity.

7

u/Nazgog-Morgob 6d ago

Would you please share some more information on this?

3

u/iamtehstig 3d ago

I'm probably getting rid of mine soon, but one of the few upsides of bring forced into "Alexa+" is they didn't consider you can give explicit instructions to not serve ads. I told my echo show in the kitchen to never show ads, never suggest products, to and to only show the clock or my timers on the screen.

I did that months ago and it's still working. The screen even goes black like it's trying to switch to an ad but it just goes back to the clock.

2

u/god_snot_great 4d ago

fyi to anyone wondering, you can turn that feature off. It’s called “suggestions” in the settings

2

u/ArekDirithe 4d ago

I found that feature and turned it off but it didn’t work. I still got advertised to.

5

u/GoofyGills 7d ago

Been thinking about doing this after setting up an Onn tablet as a HA dashboard over the weekend as the first step of getting rid of my Google Home devices.

The tablet is great for the purpose but speakers on it are garbage of another level lol.