Amazon just launched a companion app for the recently unveiled Echo Look on both iOS and Android, allowing users to view live previews from the connected camera, take a photo, look at their outfits, compare styles, and much more.
Amazon had explained what the Echo Look is and how it would work, but the companion app in question only became available this past weekend, which follows one month after the original Echo Look unveiling.
What Is Amazon Echo Look?
For the uninitiated, the Echo Look is basically an Echo smart speaker with a camera — powered by Alexa, no less. The Echo Look's camera can take snapshots of a person's outfit and offer an opinion thanks to a service called Style Check. No need for Vogue or GQ, the Echo Look seems to propose. It can now become someone's personal fashion guru.
The device can take photos and short videos by way of a depth-sensing camera, complete with built-in LED lights and computer vision-based background blurring. Of course, the Echo Look is technically an Alexa device, so it can pretty much perform the usual Alexa fare: play audiobooks, read news, play music, use skills, and a lot more.
Amazon Echo Look App
The companion app, meanwhile, works with the $200 camera and features the aforementioned Style Check, which in turn is powered by a combination of machine learning and advice from real-world fashion specialists to aid users in looking their best.
Amazon had launched Style Check ahead of the device, by virtue of an "Outfit Compare" option on its website and the Amazon mobile app. The Echo Look app bundles that feature with other tools, letting users peruse outfits and mark some as favorites. It also gives users the option to create a personalized lookbook that can be accessed anytime. When users store their photos on the app, Amazon can then better determine what users like to wear, what's inside their wardrobes, and more.
Will The Echo Look Be Useful, Or Is It Nothing More Than A Toy?
It's easy to dismiss the Echo Look as nothing but a mere plaything that borders on complex issues of privacy invasion. But on second thought, the Look can help Amazon predict fashion trends — it'll have a library full of clothes people wear every day, suppose the Echo Look catches on with consumers. Needless to say, knowing fashion trends is crucial for a company that runs the world's largest online retail store.
In fact, the Echo Look and Amazon's retail business might one day go hand-in-hand. In the foreseeable future, the device could introduce features such as taking measurements, or even suggesting accessories — ones which can be purchased directly from Amazon, obviously.
But for now Amazon has to hope that users will see the Echo Look as a useful device, and they might, seeing as how Echo Look packs in the power of Alexa. Time, however, will tell.
The Amazon Echo Look app is available for free on iOS and Android.
Thoughts about Amazon's selfie-powered fashion expert? Do you think it could be useful in everyday situation, and do you think it'll catch on like Echo devices are doing now? Feel free to sound off in the comments section below!
