Today Amazon sent out invites for a Devices & Services event, which will take place on Sept. 30 in New York, and feature Amazon SVP Panos Panay. Like most companies who hold such events, Amazon is pretty tight-lipped about what we're going to see, but we can take a few educated guesses as to what the event will be about.
Late September is the time Amazon has traditionally held such events to show off its newest smart speakers and smart displays, as well as products from companies it owns, most notably Blink, Ring and eero. However, it's been two years since Amazon has hosted such an event, and much of its hardware has gone un-updated in that time, so we could be in for a lot of new devices. Here's what we expect to see.
Amazon Devices & Services Event: Date and time
Amazon's 2025 Devices & Services event will take place on September 30, starting at 10 a.m. ET. It will be held in New York, and, like most Amazon events, will not be livestreamed (to our knowledge). However, we plan to live blog the event, so be on the lookout for our full coverage.
Amazon Devices & Services Event: Alexa+
The last big event Amazon held was in February to show off Alexa+, its AI-enhanced voice assistant. There, we were able to try out the new assistant to see what it could do, such as the ability to create smart home routines, book restaurants and trips, and in general, act in a more conversational manner than the original Alexa.
Alexa+ started rolling out in April to early adopters, so our best guess is that Amazon will announce that it's finally going to be available for everyone. I also anticipate that Amazon will announce more capabilities, as well as integration with third-party services.
Back when I tried Alexa+ for two weeks in July, it only worked with a handful of third-party apps, such as Uber, OpenTable, and Ticketmaster. Now that it's been out there for over half a year, I expect to see more partners.
Amazon Devices & Services Event: Smart speakers and displays
When Alexa+ was announced, Amazon revealed the devices that would work with Alexa+. Given that it's now as much a visual as an audio experience, it's no surprise that Alexa+ works with all Echo Show devices, but it also works to a more limited extent with some of Amazon's newer smart speakers.
Regardless, all of the devices in Amazon's inventory are likely due for an upgrade. The company's last major new product was the Echo Show 21, which came out in 2024. The Echo Show 10 (2021) and Echo Show 8 (2023) are showing their age.
While the previous Echo Shows were pretty well stocked with features, I would guess that Amazon might beef up their processing powers, so that Alexa+ could do more on-device actions, rather than having to rely on the cloud.
If the Echo Show 10 does get a refresh, I'll be curious to see if its retains the same design. Having a screen that can rotate to follow you around the kitchen or living room was pretty neat, but I wonder if the virtual tracking cameras of later Echo devices present a far cheaper solution.
Amazon Devices & Services Event: Smart glasses
What I'm particularly interested to see is if Amazon will launch a new pair of Echo Frames. The Frames were last refreshed in 2023, and since that time, Meta has really taken over the market with the Ray-Ban Meta. Most of the best smart glasses now include cameras, so that their AIs can analyze what you're looking at, so it would be a real miss on Amazon's part to omit that feature.
The other wildcard is that Meta might announce the Ray-Ban Meta 3 glasses this week at Meta Connect 2025, so whatever Amazon releases would have to be on a par with another device we know very little about — but will very soon.
Amazon Devices & Services Event: Outlook
Amazon, Apple, Google and Meta and many others are all still figuring out how best to incorporate AI into physical devices. Apart from Apple, Amazon might be the furthest behind Google and Meta, as it's had to completely reengineer its voice assistant while maintaining what was already there (and used by millions).
Now that Alexa+ has had some time in the real world, this event could be the first real showcase of devices that can truly take advantage of all that it can do. While it would be going too far to say that Alexa+ was shoehorned into previous Echo devices, they were all designed for an older version of Amazon's assistant.
Stay tuned for all of our coverage of Amazon's Devices & Services event.
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More from Tom's Guide
- I put Alexa+ to the test with my chaotic family of five.
- You can get Alexa+ early — here's how to sign up
- Amazon Alexa+ announced — here's everything it can do
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