Amazon Echo Frames guide: 3rd gen styles, Carrera, battery, Alexa+ and availability

Amazon's Echo Frames are glasses that put Alexa in your ears: speakers and microphones in the temples, with no camera and no display. The current model is the third generation, which Amazon announced on Sept. 20, 2023, in five Echo Frames shapes plus two Carrera designs. On Oct. 25, 2026, the Amazon.com listings we opened said "Currently unavailable. We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock," and none showed a price.

This guide is based on Amazon's announcement and product listings and on Carrera's collection page, and we haven't tested the glasses.

Echo Frames (3rd Gen) at a glance

Can you still buy Echo Frames?

Amazon's pages still treat Echo Frames as a current product. The listing titles read "Amazon Echo Frames (newest model), Smart glasses, Designed for Alexa+," and the pages tell owners to install the latest software update. Stock is another matter. The two listings we opened, a Modern Rectangle in charcoal gray and a Round in blue tortoise, both with blue light filtering lenses, said "Currently unavailable." The comparison table on the Round listing showed the price as "Not available" for all five Echo Frames shapes and for the Carrera Sprinter. We didn't check every color and lens combination, and stock can change.

We found no Amazon notice announcing an end of sale or an end of support, and no update schedule. Carrera's US site still has a page for its Alexa glasses, with the Sprinter and Cruiser styles. Amazon lists a one-year limited warranty, with an optional two-year extended plan for US customers.

Styles, sizes and the Carrera editions

Amazon's 2023 announcement listed seven styles: Modern Rectangle, Rectangle, Round, Square and Cat Eye under the Echo Frames name, and Carrera Cruiser and Carrera Sprinter, two designs by Carrera Eyewear of Safilo Group. Most are made from Mazzucchelli Italian acetate, and the lineup uses German-engineered spring hinges and silicone temple tips with a titanium core that you can adjust.

All five Echo Frames shapes come in prescription-ready and blue light filtering versions. Four of them also come as sunglasses with UV400 protection, polarized on the Round, Square and Modern Rectangle and gradient on the Cat Eye. The Rectangle isn't offered as sunglasses. In Amazon's comparison table, the Carrera Sprinter has sunglass lenses and no prescription-ready option.

Amazon sorts sizes as narrow (Round and Rectangle), medium (Cat Eye and Square) or wide (Modern Rectangle and Carrera Sprinter), and says Echo Frames are a standard fit that suits higher nose bridges. The listing gives frame measurements, such as 50-21-147 for the Round, so you can compare them with a pair you already own.

At launch, Echo Frames started at $269.99 and Carrera Smart Glasses with Alexa cost $389.99, Amazon said in 2023. Those are the only prices we can source, because the current listings show none.

What Alexa does on Echo Frames

You talk to Alexa through the frames and hear it through the open-ear speakers. Amazon lists these features:

• Music, podcasts and Audible books from your streaming apps, started by voice or by double-pressing the back action button, which starts a recommended playlist. Pressing again browses more.
• Open-ear calls, plus Top Contact, a press-and-hold that calls your top VIP.
• Smart home control: checking a lock, switching lights and setting a thermostat.
• A VIP Filter that lets through the notifications that matter most to you, with a low-distraction chime while you listen to audio.
• Auto Volume, which adjusts the level to the noise around you, and multipoint pairing, which keeps two devices connected at once so you can move from a laptop video call to music on your phone.
• A "find my smart glasses" request, which plays the glasses' last-known location through another Echo device or the Alexa app.

The glasses are labeled "Designed for Alexa+," Amazon's newer assistant. Amazon's listing says using Alexa+ takes a Prime membership or the Alexa+ Standard plan, which costs $19.99 a month without Prime, plus a US-based Amazon account and devices set to US English. It also says "Alexa+ navigation support is not currently available on this device."

Sound, microphones and privacy

Amazon redesigned the audio for the third generation. It says a custom speaker driver delivers three times the bass of the previous generation, that wake-word recognition is 10 times better than before in loud or windy conditions and that each pair can reach double the volume for calls in noisy places. Both of those figures compare the third generation with the earlier frames. The speakers, one in each temple, "direct sound to your ears without covering them, while minimizing what others around you can hear," Amazon says. Four beamforming microphones, two per temple, pick up your voice.

Amazon says the microphones "are designed to respond to the voice of the person wearing the frames," and you can mute them with a double press of a button. An LED signals streaming, and you can view and delete your voice recordings. Amazon lists no camera, but the four microphones still matter where venue rules name them. Our guide to smart glasses without a camera covers that.

Battery and charging

Amazon rates the glasses at up to six hours of continuous media playback or talk time at 80% volume, or up to 14 hours of moderate use. It defines moderate use as two and a half hours of media playback, one hour of talk time, 20 Alexa interactions and 90 incoming notifications spread through the day. Folding the frames turns them off. A full charge takes about 2.5 hours on the charging stand with a 5W USB adapter, which isn't included. Amazon says it tested in a lab on preproduction units and that actual battery life varies with settings and use.

Prescription lenses

Echo Frames don't come with prescription lenses. The prescription-ready styles ship with demo lenses marked "DEMO LENS ONLY," and you take the frames to an optician to have your lenses fitted or order online: Amazon's listing offers 25% off prescription lenses through Lensabl. Lenses from second-generation Echo Frames don't fit the 3rd Gen. If the frames break while lenses are being installed, Amazon says it will replace them.

Amazon's listing says many vision insurance providers offer out-of-network reimbursement for Echo Frames, naming VSP, EyeMed, Cigna and MetLife, and that you can pay with an FSA or HSA if you add prescription lenses. Check your own plan.

Phone requirements

You set up the glasses in the Alexa app, which needs an Android phone running version 9.0 or later or an iPhone on iOS 14 or later. The glasses use your phone's data plan or Wi-Fi, and Amazon notes that some skills and services may need a subscription. Bluetooth 5.2 handles the connection, with multipoint pairing for two devices.

Echo Frames vs Ray-Ban Meta Audio

Both are camera-free glasses with open-ear speakers, and both are rated IPX4. They differ in assistant, battery rating and what you can buy today.

Meta's figures come from our Ray-Ban Meta Audio guide. On paper, Audio has the longer battery rating and two more microphones, and Meta lists live translation in 20 languages when the glasses are connected. The Amazon pages we read don't mention translation. Echo Frames offer a wider choice of shapes, including Carrera and sunglass versions, and an assistant with smart home controls. Neither pair takes photos or answers questions about what you're looking at. For Meta's camera model, see our Gen 3 vs Audio comparison.

Who Echo Frames suit

On the specs, Echo Frames suit someone who already lives in Alexa, wants music, calls and smart home control without a screen and likes the idea of prescription-ready frames in a choice of shapes. Stock is the first thing to check. If you can't find a pair, our best smart glasses guide compares the alternatives, and our explainer on what smart glasses are covers how audio glasses differ from camera and display models.