In this post, I have reviewed Echo Show baby monitors which rely on baby monitors that work with Alexa by utilizing both Echo Show 5 and Echo Show 8 as baby monitor screens.
Amazon’s Echo Show is part of the Echo line of devices designed by Amazon, the online retail company with a growing list of cameras to support Amazon’s Alexa Home. Amazon’s Smart Home is powered by an AI voice assistant that can make parenting a bit more fun and easy. Like several smart home devices, Alexa Home baby monitors rely on Wifi to transmit signals.
In July 2019, there were 164 Alexa-Home compatible cameras and by September, the number had risen to 192 cameras. Two years later, in May 2021, there are over 1000 smart home cameras compatible with Alexa Home! Smart Home cameras will dominate the future of home security and very soon, you’ll have to think hard about why you’d rather go for Alexa and not Homekit or Google Home cameras. As I wrote in a separate post about Google Home compatible baby monitors, any camera can be turned into a baby monitor if it has high-quality night vision.
With Amazon’s Alexa, you can control your smart home devices such as lights, cameras, TVs, and speakers among others. Echo, the smart speakers were introduced before the latest addition, the Amazon Echo Show. Amazon Echo is Alexa enabled speakers or virtual assistants.
The only difference that Amazon Echo Show has compared to other Echo devices (such as dot or spot) is that Echo Show comes with a tablet in addition to the smart speaker. In other words, you can instruct Amazon Echo Show to stream videos from Echo enabled devices such as your baby monitor or your security camera mounted in the baby’s nursery.
Here are the top Echo Show baby monitors compatible with Alexa today:
Brief History:
Amazon Echo was introduced in 2015 but the video feature (Echo Show) of Alexa’s virtual Assistant was introduced by Amazon in July 2017.
In May 2019, less than a year after Amazon released the first generation of Echo Show, Google approved over 20 security cameras and baby monitors that can integrate with its Google Home hub ecosystem.
What does this mean?
Both Google’s Gooogle Assistant and Amazon’s Alexa can now take voice commands and stream video feeds from security cameras or baby monitors that are compatible with your smart home ecosystem.
If you mount your compatible Google or Echo camera or baby monitor in your baby’s nursery, you can leverage the respective virtual assistants to monitor your baby. Both Google Assistant and Alexa take voice commands and all you need to do is instruct it to stream videos from your baby’s nursery.
| Alexa Echo Show Start Commands | Google Home Hub Start Commands |
| “Alexa” | “Okay Google” |
| “Amazon” | “Hey Google” |
| “Computer” |
Each of the voice commands has to start with the listed commands in the above table.
While Amazon’s Echo Show has varied command options Google Home Hub has stuck with just “Okay Google” command.
Prior to July 2019, Amazon Echo Show and Google Home Hub were rivals but you Echo and Google Hub devices are now compatible.
Amazon Smart Home With Alexa
The video below shows how Arlo Pro 2, a security camera, can be integrated with Amazon Echo Show. You can skip to 2:00 and see her instruct Alexa to show the front door camera:
What is Amazon Echo Show and Echo Spot?
Amazon Echo Show is a smart compact display unit of Amazon’s Echo. The latest 5th generation Echo Show was released in May 2019. With the Echo Show, you can stream and watch videos from the baby cam mounted in the nursery on Echo Show’s 5.5-inch display. Echo Show can stream each of the named cameras in any of your smart homes by saying a command like this:
“Alexa, show me the baby monitor”
Echo Show will stream any of the registered cameras and baby monitors already identified by Alexa and registered on the with a cloud/data storage account.
The latest is Amazon Echo Show 8 (Click image to see availability and price on Amazon)
Below is a picture of Amazon’s Echo Show 5th generation (Click image for price and availability on Amazon – Currently selling for 33% off – April 2020).
Below is a table showing the differences between Echo Show 8 and Echo show 5:
| Echo Show 8 | Echo Show 5 |
|---|---|
| No products found. | No products found. |
| Dimensions: 7.9″ x 5.4″ x 3.9 “. I has 8-inch screen with a 1280 x 800 resolution | Dimensions: 5.8″ x 3.4″ x 2.9″. The screen measures 5.5 inches with a 960 x 480 resolution |
| Weighs 36.6 oz | Weighs 14.5 oz |
| 8.0″ with 1280 x 800 resolution | 5.5″ with 960 x 480 resolution |
| Camera: 1MP, the 1-megapixel camera is similar to that of the Echo Show 5. | Camera: 1MP |
| It has 2-inch speakers @ 10W per channel | It has one 1.7-inch speaker @ 4W channel |
| Has a slanted design | Has a slanted design |
| Two color options available: Sandstone and charcoal | Two color options available: Sandstone and charcoal |
| Built-in Alexa | Built-in Alexa |
| Check Price | Check Price |
Below is another image of Echo Show 5 on a table.
Below are the features of Echo Show’s display:
- 5.5-inch display unit
- Controls smart home features and devices such as TVs, Movies, news, podcasts. You can also choose to instruct it to play lullabies to your baby.
- Has to-do list simplified
- Easy to turn privacy on and off
How to use Amazon Echo Show and Echo Spot As Baby Monitor
To use Amazon Echo Show as a baby monitor, you need to set up an intercom that will allow you to call and drop in on Amazon Echo-enabled camera in the baby’s room and stream videos. Unlike Google Home, Amazon’s Echo Show requires you to set to initiate a call from your Echo Show to the camera and the camera is actually not supposed to pick the call but it should just stream videos on receiving the call.
Here are the steps to do it:
- Download Alexa App on your phone. Make sure you’re downloading ‘Amazon Alexa’ on Google Playstore.
- Select speech or conversation icon
- Enter your name if you are not already registered with Amazon Alexa
- Tap on all the devices you want to allow drop-in on (basically, choose the baby cam that your family can call in and steam videos of your baby)
- On the drop-in page, select the settings to ‘on’ to allow all drop-ins – It allows you to choose ‘in my household’ which basically allows drop-ins from devices in your home.
- Allow the contacts that can drop in (Contacts are in the conversation icon). By default, the drop-in is disabled for all contacts on your phone and you need to choose the individuals who can drop in. You need to add your baby’s nursery as a contact for Alexa to take commands and drop in on your baby. Your contact, in this case, the baby has to allow you to drop in and you can set it up by creating an Alexa account for your baby. Once the Alexa account of your baby is set up, you need to allow yourself as one of the contacts who can drop in.
To stream the video from the baby’s nursery, all you need to say is:
“Alexa, drop in on ‘baby’s name'”
The video below explains the details of how you can set up Alexa calling and use Amazon Echo as baby monitor:
Reviews of Baby Monitors Compatible With Amazon Echo:
Below are baby monitors that are compatible with Amazon Alexa:
1. Project Nursery Smart Baby Monitor With Alexa Review
Smart baby monitor by Project Nursery is our best Echo Show Baby Monitor and is our overall best Alexa Home compatible baby monitor in 2019. Smart baby monitor by Project Nursery can be integrated with Echo Show, Alexa and Echo Spot to deliver a great baby monitoring experience. Since the release of Echo Show in 2017, a few baby monitors work with Echo Show to leverage Amazon’s virtual assistant, Alexa. Aside from being compatible with Alexa, Smart Baby Monitor by Project Nursery is also compatible with Google Home hub and it made it to the list of best Google Home baby monitors. The monitor by Project Nursery was released to the market in February 2018 and since then, Project Nursery has introduced more devices such as a smart speaker for your smart baby nursery.
Smart Baby Monitor is ahead of Arlo baby, another Echo Show baby monitor in our list because it has other devices such as Alexa speakers that can be integrated to enhance the baby monitoring experience.
Below is a picture of Smart Baby Monitor
Below are some of the features of Smart Baby Monitor:
- Enables you to ask Alexa to play unlimited lullabies to your baby by tapping into Alexa lullaby station, Alexa lullaby playlist, Alexa Skills lullabies, and Alexa sleep music & lullabies.
- Remote viewing of your baby using iOS or Android devices
- Enables you to instruct Alexa to record videos and store them on microSD
- Enables you to ask Alexa the temperature readings in the baby’s room.
- You can ask Alexa to move the camera remotely – pan, tilt, and zoom using voice commands.
- Infrared night vision
- Two-way talk
- Motion and temperature sensors
- Supports up to 4 cameras.
- No cloud or storage fees for stored videos
- Does not use batteries
- 270 degrees pan and 120 degrees tilt.
2. Your baby can enjoy lullabies and white noise to help soothe your infant to sleep.
3.Project Nursery has a handheld receiver
4. it is easy to install and comes with smart Echo Speaker
5. It can be integrated with Alexa virtual assistant similar to Google Assistant.
6. You can remotely pan and tilt the camera
7. Speakers have on and off feature which allows you to turn them off or on when you like to
2. When the monitor and camera loses connection, it beeps loudly which can interrupt the sleep of your baby.
3. The connection can sometimes freeze or crash, which can be inconvenient for parents.
4. Its motion detection feature has several negative identifications resulting in several false alarms
You can check the current price of Smart Baby Monitor on Amazon here.
2. Arlo Baby Monitor
Arlo baby monitor is our second best Amazon Echo Show baby monitor. In other words, Arlo is among our top Alexa compatible baby monitors in 2019. You can integrate Arlo baby monitor camera to the Amazon Alexa app and access features of Apps and devices such as Echo Show, Echo Spot, and Alexa Skill. You may be wondering whether you can use Amazon Echo Show as a baby monitor. Indeed, you can. Amazon Echo Show works perfectly with Arlo and you can integrate it with Amazon Alexa App and use it as a baby monitor.
Arlo baby monitor is a product of Netgear, a publicly-traded company that has several arrays of security cameras, indoor and outdoor. Arlo baby monitor emerged top in BMC’s list of Google Home compatible baby monitors and the features will inform you on why we like Arlo baby monitor:
Below are the features of Arlo baby in brief:
- It is a wifi baby monitor released in 2017
- Has night vision with a range of up to 15ft.
- 1080p HD videos
- 2-way talk
- Has motion and sound detection
- Smart nursery features such as night light
- Has storage fees or subscription fees
2. Great sensors – temperature and low-light (night vision)
3.Battery-operated
4. Environment sensors
5. Built-in white noise and night light
6. Excellent 2-way communication
2.Too many notificaitons – including false alarms
3. Short batter-life
3. Amazon Cloud Cam as Alexa Home Baby Monitor
Amazon Cloud Cam is our third best Amazon Echo Show Baby Monitor in 2019. However, you should note that by the time you are reading this they may not be available for sale on Amazon any longer. Below was their November announcement:
“This product will soon be out of sale. All existing Cloud Cams will still be supported without interruption. “
It’s probably better if you check its availability before reading further.
Below is a video describing the integration of Amazon Cloud Cam and Alexa Home:
This security camera can be turned into a baby monitor with some integration of Amazon’s virtual assistant, Alexa to leverage Alexa Skills, Echo Spot and Echo Show. This Amazon developed security camera enables you to turn your Alexa Home into a baby monitor.
Amazon Cloud Cam costs less than mainstream cameras such as Arlo or Nest but has great features that can be helpful for the baby in the nursery.
Below are the features of Amazon Cloud Cam:
- Continous streaming just like Nest Cam Indoor that streams 24/7
- High-quality videos 1080p HD
- Instant notification
- 30 days of free cloud storage
- Person and audio detection alerts
- Can view the feed on Amazon Fire TV, Fire Tablet, Echo Show, or Echo Spot.
- Smart alerts and detection such as baby cry detection alerts
- Excellent night vision
- 2-way audio
The table below shows Amazon Cloud Cam subscription rates:
The two main cons of Amazon Cloud cam is that it does not have a siren and this is not good given that this is a security camera. Another big disadvantage is that it doesn’t have a MicroSD card slot which basically limits you to rely on Amazon’s cloud storage which starts from about $7 per month.
You can check the current price of Amazon Cloud Cam on Amazon here.
4. Nanit and Nanit Plus As Echo Show Monitors
Nanit (original) and Nanit Plus are now compatible with the Alexa Show’s line of products. You will need Nanit Show (free) and you can start taking advantage of Amazon’s virtual assistant, Alexa. Alexa can now assist in monitoring your baby by streaming Nanit’s 960p HD videos on Echo Show 5 or on Echo Show 8 screens.
On October 10th, 2019, Nanit released a press-release and below is a snapshot from the press release they sent out:
The Nanit Plus camera now works seamlessly with the Amazon Echo Show and Echo Spot, allowing users to see Nanit’s HD video stream and audio from anywhere in their house by simply saying “Alexa, show me [baby’s]’s crib?” or “Alexa, show me [baby]?” Parents and caregivers can now leverage Amazon’s Alexa voice control capabilities to quickly see and hear their baby without having to stop what they are doing or disrupt the baby’s sleeping environment.
Nanit integration with Alexa – Prnewswire, Oct 10 2019
For many parents that had been waiting on Nanit and Echo show integration can now enjoy Nanit’s superior sleep tracking technology and superior insights. It’s also a big advantage to know that Nanit is eligible for purchase using HSA and FSA benefits, just like other great monitors such as Owlet.
Here are other features we like about Nanit Plus:
- Superior security with AES 256-bit encryption and 2-factor authentication.
- Videos have HD resolution, 960p HD resolution.
- Two-way audio, a feature that was not available in the original Nanit.
- Free sleep insight in the first year
- Award-winning patented technology that leverages AI and does not require the baby to obtain vital data such as the baby’s sleep timing and schedule.
After enabling Alexa Show which is free by enabling it via Alexa skill store. With the Nanit show, you can now utilize and play music or lullabies to your baby on Echo Dot and watch videos of your baby using the Echo show.
5. Wyze Cam V2 and Wyze Cam Pan 1080p HD as Echo Show Baby Monitors
Wyze Cam is our fifth best Echo Show Baby Monitor in Motherhood HQ’s list of top Alexa home baby monitors. Wyze Cam has been around since 2017 and is currently one of the best-selling security cameras on Amazon, beating established giants such as Nest, Arlo, and Ring.
The original Wyze Cam cannot be integrated with Alexa or Echo Show but Wyze Cam V2 and Wyze Cam Pan 1080p HD can be turned into a baby monitor using Echo Show.
These two Wyze Cameras V2 and Pan 1080p can now be integrated with Amazon’s Echo Spot and Echo Show.
And that’s not all. As of July 2019, Wyze Cam Pan 1080p is now compatible with Google Home Hub and this makes Wyze Cam the cheapest security camera that is compatible with both Alexa Home and Google Home.
2. Small, flexible form factor
3. Shart 1080p HD videos
4. Free cloud storage and available local storage
5. Time-lapse recording and motion tracking.
6. Blink Mini Echo Show Baby Monitor
Blink recently recently released a low-cost security and surveillance camera, Blink Mini that costs less than half of the previous models (XT and XT2). Blink has been known for high-quality security cameras with free cloud storage (the XT and XT2) but this inexpensive brand, the Mini, does not have free cloud storage. However, it supports all alexa-enabled smart speakers and displays but does not support Google Assistant, Siri or Apple’s Homekit.
It is currently the best-selling brand in ‘Security and Surveillance Cameras’ category on Amazon. It has also been rated very highly, 4.4/5 by over 19,000 reviewers on Amazon. If you read some reviews on using Blink as baby monitor, you’ll find that customers have liked this cameras as a baby monitor. Below is one review:
No products found. No products found.“I use it in my baby’s room and it is so much better than the baby monitor i had that was twice the price. So glad i got it.“
Lili, August 5 2020
Features:
- It works with Alexa Home and can be turned into an Echo-show baby monitor
- It is very inexpensive – actually selling at a 29% discount price of $24.99 (usual price is around $35)
- 1080P HD indoor
- Uses AC power, plug-in
- It has motion detection and two way audio that lets you monitor the inside of your home day and night.
- Blink Mini includes a free trial of the Blink cloud storage subscription through December 31, 2020.
- Sets up in minutes – just plug in the camera, connect it to wifi, and add it to your Blink app.
- Up to 30 frames per second
- It has a field of view of 110 degrees diagonal
Read our full review with pros and cons here.
7. Security Cameras Compatible With Echo Show
The following security cameras are also compatible with Echo Show and can be used as baby monitors:
- YI 4pc Home Camera
- Arlo Pro
- Zmodo Sight 180
- Nest Cam Indoor
- Nooie Baby Monitor – Recently released – also compatible with Google Home and costs less than $40!
- Mibao Baby Monitor
- Laxihub Baby Camera
- APEMAN Baby Monitor
Alexa Baby Monitor Skill
Echo Show 5
Amazon Echo show is a smart speaker that takes voice instructions and can cast videos on its 7-inch video screens/tablets. In other words, you can ask Amazon’s Alexa to cast videos of your baby on the Amazon Echo Show tablet.
You can use Echo Show as a baby monitor by following the stpes highlighted in the post above.
| Name | Smart Baby Monitor, Project Nursery | Arlo Baby Monitor | Nanit Plus | Wyze Cam v2 1080p | Noonie Baby Monitor | Blink Mini |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Image | No products found. | No products found. | No products found. | No products found. | No products found. | No products found. |
| Rating on Amazon | 2.4/5 by 80+ reviewers | 3.8/5 by 2,400+ reviewers | 4.6/5 by over 2,600 reviewers | 4.7/5 by 2,600+ reviewers | 4.3/5 by 4,500+ reviwers | 4.4/5 by 19,000+ reviewers |
| Compatible with Echo Show 5 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Compatible with Echo Show 8 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Features | Use any Amazon Alexa Video device including Echo Show, Echo Spot and Fire TV; Ask Alexa to move the camera, record video or capture photos, play lullabies and sounds, motion/sound detection and temperature readings | 1080P HD video quality; 2-way wireless talk; Advanced night vision; Works with Alexa, Apple home Kit; Google assistant, IFTTT | 256-bit encryption keeps your data safe; 960p HD resolution camera; Advanced sleep insights | orks with 2.4GHz Wi-Fi networks (does not support 5GHz Wi-Fi); Motion and sound detection alerts with free rolling 14-day cloud storage. Use the Wyze App (iOS and Android) to manage and share multiple cameras | Real-time Activity Alerts/Crying Detection/Motion Detection Class 6 and above, 4-128G Micro SD Card or Cloud Storage 1080p/15fps Field of view of 355 degrees Manufactured by Nooie US | 1080P HD indoor Uses AC power, plug-in It has motion detection and two way audio that lets you monitor the inside of your home day and night. |
| Price | No products found. | No products found. | No products found. | No products found. | No products found. | No products found. |
- About the Author
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Hi there! I am Ashley Davis, a mom of three kids and the editor here at Motherhoodhq.com. I have been a parent since 2011 and have been doing full-time consulting as a baby sleep expert since 2019. When I am not researching or testing the next baby gear hitting the market, you’ll find me teaching my toddlers a trick or two – especially over the last few months with the lockdown. I hope you’ll find my guides and reviews helpful as you make your next purchase decision. If you have any questions, you can reach me at ashley.d@motherhoodhq.com.
Last update on 2023-03-29 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
