Amazon's Answer To Apple AirPods, The Echo Buds, Can Now Track Workouts

Amazon.com, Inc’s AMZN Alexa voice-assistant-powered wireless Echo Buds earphones can now track workouts, the company announced, as reported by CNBC on Monday.

What Happened: The e-commerce giant said the feature will be rolled out over the next couple of days. CNBC had last year reported on Amazon's plans to launch wireless earbuds with built-in fitness tracking.

Echo Buds users will be able to track the number of steps they take, calories burned, and the speed of their walk or run with their wireless earbuds.

A profile specific to workouts will need to be created in the Alexa app on a phone to enable tracking after which users can issue commands to Alexa to start, the company said.

An example command is “Alexa, start my run.” Follow up instructions can be given to Alexa to pause or end a workout.

Why It Matters: The Echo Buds were not distinct from offerings of other manufacturers but were priced at $130 last year, TechCrunch reported.

The wireless earphones are now available at a discounted rate of $80, which according to TechCrunch is a “competitive deal.” At press time, the Echo Buds were not available for sale on Amazon’s website in the U.S.

Meanwhile, Apple Inc AAPL sells its second-generation AirPods with a wireless charging case at $199 and with a non-wireless charging case at $159. The tech giant’s AirPods Pro with voice-activated Siri assistant functionality retail at $249.

Price Action: Amazon shares closed almost unchanged at $3,098.39 on Monday and gained 0.57% in the after-hours session.

Photo by Ron Merk on Flickr