Amazon upgrades all its Echo Show displays with a digital photo frame mode

TheAmazon Echo Showcan go head-to-head against peers like those in the Google Nest Hub series when it comes to smart display functionality and sound quality. Models like theEcho Show 10manage to stand out from competitors with a unique rotating base, which can swivel in the user’s direction. But for all they do well, one place where Echo Show models lose out to other smart displays is with the simple ability to act as a digital photo frame, displaying a basic slideshow. Thankfully, Amazon is finally addressing that oversight — albeit with a slight caveat.

Beginning August 5, Echo Show screens can be configured to display photos for three consecutive hours, we learn fromthe Verge. This digital photo frame display capability was previously available only on theEcho Show 15, which was released last December. With this month’s upgrade, the feature is now present on all Echo Smart displays for users in the US, Canada, Australia, UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, and France.

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Once you get started with the voice command “Alexa, start photo frame,” your smart display will hide widgets and notifications as it goes full-screen for its slideshow, making sure your pics are the focus. The only text threatening to get in your way is a little note in the coroner about when the picture was taken and to which album it belongs.

Echo Show owners can choose the albums to display via the Alexa app’s device settings. Photos can be pulled from connected Amazon and Facebook accounts, or even uploaded from your smartphone or tablet. If you just don’t know what to choose, you can always set it to display a random selection of third-party images.

Google Home icon with some gadgets around it.

So what’s the caveat we warned about? This digital photo frame mode needs to be reactivated every three hours — why this display feature is available only for this specific duration is a mystery. Still, it’s better than nothing, and we’ll take the upgrade we can get.

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This article is sponsored by Total Wireless.

A representation of the Echo Show’s photo frame display feature

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