Amazon Echo, often shortened to Echo, is a brand of smart speakers developed by Amazon. Echo devices connect to the voice-controlled intelligent personal assistant service. Alexa, which responds to a wake term (Alexa, and others) when spoken by its user. The features of the device include voice interaction, audio program playback, such as music, streaming podcasts, and audiobooks, maintaining to-do lists, alarms, and scheduling reminders. in addition to providing weather, traffic and other real-time information. It can also control several smart devices, acting as a home automation hub.

Amazon started developing Echo devices inside its Lab126 offices in Silicon Valley and in Cambridge, Massachusetts as early as 2010. The device represented one of its first attempts to expand its device portfolio beyond the Kindle e-reader.

Amazon initially limited the first-generation Echo to Amazon Prime members or just by invitation, but it became widely available in the United States in mid 2015, and subsequently in other countries. Additionally, the Alexa voice service is available to be added to other devices, and Amazon encourages other companies' devices and services to connect to it.

Work on the Amazon Echo began in 2011, known as "Project D". It was named this because the Kindle was Project A and the Fire Phone was Project B. The Amazon Echo was an offshoot of Project C. Project C is unknown, even though the work on it has stopped. The Amazon Echo was originally supposed to be called the Amazon Flash. The wake word, the word that makes the device responsive, for the Echo used to be "Amazon". Both of these attributes were disliked by Lab126, the division of Amazon that conducts research and development and creates computer hardware. Lab126 believed that "Amazon" is too commonly used, and the device would react when it was not intended to. Jeff Bezos, the Amazon CEO, ended up being influenced by Lab126 to change the name of the device to the Amazon Echo and the wake word to "Alexa". The Amazon Echo was originally pitched as only a smart speaker, it was not intended to be a smart home hub until after it was launched. As Alexa, the artificial intelligence (A.I.) that powers the Amazon Echo, improved, the device became more a controlling center for smart home appliances. Dave Isbitski, the chief developer evangelist for the Echo and Alexa, received calls from smart home manufacturers to discuss connecting their devices, after the release of the Amazon Echo. But smart home devices had a problem: people were not buying them because they often required an extra app in order to be used, which was not much better than just using the device manually.

The Amazon Echo (1st Generation) was released in 2014 alongside the voice of the product, Alexa. Alexa is a voice associated with the Amazon Echo that responds to questions and requests through artificial intelligence. Amazon has claimed that the voice of Alexa was inspired by electronic communications systems featured in the television series Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek: The Next Generation. The Echo was announced on Nov 6, 2014 and available by invitation only. It became available to all customers on July 14, 2015.

The Echo featured prominently in Amazon's first Super Bowl broadcast television advertisement in 2016.

In March 2016 Amazon released a less expensive version of the Amazon Echo, called the Amazon Echo Dot. This device is an ice hockey puck sized version of the original Amazon Echo released in 2014, and it has the same capabilities. This product was designed to be used in smaller rooms such as bedrooms due to its limited speaker capabilities (size) or to be paired with an external speaker. In November 2016 the second generation of the Echo Dot was released for a lower price with improved voice recognition and new colors.

The second generation of the Amazon Echo was released in October 2017. This update offered better voice recognition and a fabric covering exterior. Subsequently, other variants of the Amazon Echo have been released.