The Internet of Things is beginning to look like a vast space filled with emerging technologies and promising products which already exist on the market. Towards the top of these products is Amazon’s Echo speaker, a cylindrical smart speaker that is capable of interacting with most of the other smart and connected products in the home, while also allowing you to complete tasks like hailing a ride from Uber or even read out your Kindle books. While you would need to fork out $179.99 to grab the Echo itself as well as have a collection of other connected products to make the most of it, Amazon has now just created a browser-based tool for the community to use and simulate the Echo, if you’ve wanted to give the speaker a try before you buy.
The website is appropriately named “Echosim.io” and is designed and meant for developers to use as an online community tool, but even if you’re not a developer you can still head to the web page and check out the tool yourself. While it’s not as hands-off as the actual Echo, seeing as you have to click on and hold the mic button to ask it something, it still provides a realistic look at how it performs and should give you a good idea of whether or not it would be something you desire or that would be useful to you personally.
As stated above, all you have to do to test out Alexa’s capabilities is click on the little button above the image of the Echo speaker, or if you have a touch-enabled device like a smartphone, tablet, or touchscreen laptop, you can tap on it with your finger. It is worth noting that if you want to test out the features, you will have to be signed into your Amazon account to give it a shot, and for developers if you’re signed into your developer account you can test out your Alexa skill. While you aren’t going to be using this Echo simulator to order any pizzas from Dominos, you can ask it anything you could ask Alexa through the actual Echo speaker and get results, although some things may be inaccurate, like stuff dealing with your location, if you don’t have configured details within the Alexa app.