Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Gaming
  3. Deals

How to add voice control to your Xbox for $20 on Cyber Monday

Add as a preferred source on Google
Image used with permission by copyright holder
This story is part of Digital Trends' Cyber Monday coverage 2025

Whether you’re paying attention or not, some of the best Cyber Monday deals are piling up, and there’s a lot to choose from. We all could use a little help navigating them, and there’s nothing wrong with that. If you’re searching for some great Xbox Cyber Monday deals, we have one for you — it’s a proposal, really. Right now, at Amazon, you can grab the Echo Dot (3rd Gen) for $20 with fast, free shipping. That’s a discount of $20, since it’s normally $40. Now, you may be wondering what this Echo Dot deal has to do with Microsoft’s Xbox consoles. Recently, Microsoft enabled Echo support for the Xbox One (X and S), so you can control your console with voice commands. We’ll get a little more detailed about that change and the deal below!

Included in the latest Amazon Cyber Monday deals are a host of Echo devices on sale, including the Dot smart speaker, Fire tablets, and more. You’d be forgiven for thinking those deals don’t apply to you, especially if you’re looking for Xbox-related discounts. However, Microsoft recently enabled Echo support for the Xbox One consoles. Here’s how it works: After connecting both devices to your home Wi-Fi — and the same network — you can enable digital assistants on your Xbox console through the settings menu using Alexa skills.

After the two devices are connected, you can use the Echo Dot, and Alexa, to control your console via voice commands, exactly as you would while using Microsoft’s Cortana. This method offers a cheap voice assistant alternative, but also allows you to use your other smart home devices if you’re already connected to Alexa’s smart home ecosystem. Better yet, if you don’t already have a smart speaker and voice commands set up, this deal will get you set! Xbox Kinect may be gone for good, but this method adds voice controls for cheap!

Of course, the Echo Dot smart speaker is better described as a sum of its parts, with a huge list of features and functionality to improve your home. You can play music, podcasts, audiobooks, and much more. It also serves as a Bluetooth speaker, so you can connect your phone and play pretty much whatever you want over the Bluetooth connection. What’s more, the speaker has Alexa, Amazon’s voice assistant, built-in. You can shop for products on Amazon, browse content, ask questions, and much, much more. You can also connect to calls and take them hands-free on your speaker,= through connected devices.

Normally $40, the Echo Dot (3rd Gen) is all yours for just $20 with free shipping and free returns for Cyber Monday. It’s a low price, and it’s also one of the cheapest ways to add voice controls to your Xbox consoles with Alexa’s help. Don’t let this deal lag out!

Briley Kenney
Briley has been writing about consumer electronics and technology for over a decade. When he's not writing about deals for…
Epic is throwing $50,000 for vibe-code games. What could possibly go wrong?
Epic is rewarding vibe-coded games with real money
Epic MegaJam 2026

Epic Games has just announced the 2026 Epic AI MegaJam, which is looking to see how much game development can be squeezed into a very short window. This is running from November 12 through November 15.

Participants can work alone or in teams of up to five people, build in Unreal Engine or Unreal Editor for Fortnite, and bring along “as many AI agents as you want.” Epic explicitly encourages coding agents, AI-generated assets, audio tools, writing tools, and other AI systems. The official event page literally says "Vibe your way to $50k.”

Read more
Monster Hunter Outlanders arrives on Android and iOS next week with four-player co-op
The free-to-play spin-off launches October 29 with open-world exploration, mobile-focused combat, and a building system.
Monster Hunter Outlanders poster

It’s turning into a pretty good time to be a Monster Hunter fan who plays on a phone. Capcom has confirmed that Monster Hunter Outlanders will launch on Android and iOS on October 29, giving the series a new mobile-first game just as Monster Hunter Rise is also preparing to make the jump to smartphones through Netflix.

Outlanders is being developed by Tencent subsidiary TiMi Studio Group under license and supervision from Capcom. Unlike Rise, which appears to be the full console and PC game adapted for mobile, Outlanders is a free-to-play survival hunting game made specifically for phones.

Read more
Phantom Blade Zero makes me think Sony might have a point about going all digital
Physical games still matter, but when the disc isn't a complete copy of the game, the argument for keeping it becomes harder to make.
Phantom Blade Zero Featured Image

I'm a big supporter of physical games. There's something satisfying about owning a disc, lending it to a friend, or grabbing a bargain without waiting for a digital storefront to approve the price. But Phantom Blade Zero has me questioning one of the biggest arguments in the physical-versus-digital debate. The game's digital version launches on October 29, 2026, while its physical PS5 editions, including Standard, Deluxe, and Ultimate versions, won't arrive until 2027.

And there's another wrinkle: the digital version reportedly needs up to 134GB of storage, raising questions about how much of the game can actually fit on a standard Blu-ray disc. A standard PS5 Ultra HD Blu-ray disc maxes out at 100GB, so Phantom Blade Zero may need to ship across multiple discs or require players to download additional data to finish installing it. Either way, the idea of popping in a disc and having the complete game ready to play gets a little murkier.

Read more