Amazon fixed Echo Show 10’s biggest feature failure

Amazon’s Echo Show 10 is an interesting gadget for its ability to move around with you while you stream videos and make calls to friends and family. But for a smart screen whose the whole reason for being its support for these uses, the Echo Show lacked a major application used universally during the pandemic: Zoom.

When Gizmodo examined the Echo Show 10 last month, a spokesperson said at the time that support for Zoom “would be coming soon.” This mount has finally arrived, which makes it a pretty awesome good gadget. Customers with the third generation Echo Show 10 can now invite Alexa to join Zoom or Amazon Chime meetings using commands such as, “Alexa, join my meeting”, “Alexa, join my Zoom meeting” or “Alexa, join my Amazon Chime meeting.”

The Echo Show 10 can start hands-free meetings once your calendar has been linked through the Alexa app (this is how support for some other services like music apps works as well). Amazon says its voice assistant “will automatically start your scheduled meeting completely hands-free without you needing your meeting ID or passcode – you just need to confirm the title of the meeting you want to join.”

Zooming had been a major blind spot on the device given the way it was meant to be used, so support on Echo Show 10 is welcome. The only other major failure of the device, however, was support for more streaming apps.

A dedicated YouTube app, for example, would be a minimal addition to Echo Show 10’s current limited range of streaming apps, which includes Food Network Kitchen, Happy TV, Hulu, NBC, Netflix, Prime Video, Redbull TV, and Tubi. . . Currently, it’s accessible through a web browser, but a dedicated app would be useful for things like picking up where you left off on a video.

At the very least, you can now call your family using the video lock.conference app of choice.