I use my echo now for a few months.
Automated allmost everything in my house.
BUT!
the echo is almost useless in daily life.
It hears the tv sound and keeps listening.
After a few seconds it stops and doesnt recognise anything.
We need a version with outputs.
Example a pin that goes high when alexa is listening (like the color ring) so i can wire it to my audio system and mute te sound.
When my tv is off everything works like a charm. With the tv on alexa hears the wake up command but then does nothing.
As a last effort am trying to hack into the echo and tap into the color ring and let an arduino recognise the light pattern and mute the tv.
Lot of people have this problem.
I dont know why amazon still hasnt fixed this issue.
More uses for pins could be a hardware microphone mute, audio pass trough so can be lowered when listening.
Capability to add sensors