My initial assessment of the Echo Buds last year wasn’t overwhelmingly positive, however Amazon’s initial attempt at creating fully wireless earbuds with Alexa integration was adequate. Despite being available for some time, the company continues to provide significant improvements, with the introduction of new fitness capabilities being the latest example.

With the earbuds in place, simply saying “Alexa, begin my workout” will initiate tracking of steps taken, calories burned, distance covered, running pace, and workout duration. As with many new software features, it will take several days for this update to become available to all users. Activation of this feature also necessitates enabling the new tracking functionality through the Alexa application.

After activation, you can use the following voice commands:

• “Alexa, initiate a run”
• “Alexa, temporarily stop my walk”
• “Alexa, conclude my workout”
• “Alexa, what is my running distance?”
• “Alexa, what is my current pace?”
• “Alexa, provide a summary of my workout”

Requesting “Alexa, how did my workout go?” will display your past running performance data.

As previously mentioned, the Echo Buds didn’t particularly distinguish themselves from the numerous other earbuds on the market, although their price point – originally $130 – was certainly a strong advantage. Currently, they are available at a considerably reduced price of $80, making them a very attractive option.