10 Best Smart Speakers (2025): Alexa, Google Assistant, Siri

The Echo Show 8 is one of the devices slated to get first access to Alexa+, Amazon's new voice assistant, which comes out later this spring. Before that release, though, the impending arrival will cause the privacy feature that keeps your voice recordings stored locally to go away. As of March 28, 2025, all voice commands will automatically be sent to Amazon and processed in the cloud. Connects to Alexa. ★ A cheaper, similar Echo Show: The second-gen Echo Show 8 ($130) is a little cheaper and is still a great choice if you don't have your heart set on new features like the smart home hub or spatial audio. Best Mini Speaker If you aren’t in it for the music, the Amazon Echo Dot (5th Gen) and Google's Nest Mini (7/10, WIRED Recommends) will give you most of the perks of owning a smart speaker, and you can use them to make existing speakers smarter on the cheap. The sound is very similar between models, and they have nearly identical footprints, so you can argue that one is better tha ... Read full article.