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One advantage Amazon's Echo Dot has over Google's Home Mini is that the Echo Dot has a 3.mm connector in addition to bluetooth, so you can easily connect it to your existing speakers or receiver.

Right now the 3rd-gen Echo Dot is $30 and the 2nd-gen is $25.

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Chromecast Audio has jack which doubles as optical (same as Macbook's audio jack). And mine is connected to good quality amplifier via optical cable. For a price it would be difficult to replace.

> same as Macbook's audio jack

Older MacBooks. Apple dropped optical out/in several years ago, none of their current systems (unless you count the 2013 Mac Pro as current) include it.

Mine is 2015 Retina Pro and still has the optical out. It is the last in the line though and yet one more reason that my paths parted with Apple since.

[1] https://appleinsider.com/articles/16/11/02/new-macbook-pro-d...

There's also an Echo exclusively for use with the 3.5 mm jack

https://techcrunch.com/2018/09/20/amazon-introduces-the-echo...

You can mod Google Home Mini to have Line in/out using a kit from here: https://www.snektek.com/shop/index.php?route=product/product.... They also have a fully modded home mini: https://www.snektek.com/shop/index.php?route=product/product...

Holy smokes, that's a pricey modification.

The Echo's 3.5mm jack is analog. Chromecast Audio's optical output is digital. The optical output is infinitely more preferable for connecting to my home theater receiver.

Can you stream to an Echo Dot from any/many music apps on your phone like the Chromecast? Or do you have to control everything by voice?

I have it set up so that it connects to my phone via bluetooth, and I output audio from whatever service I want on my phone.

Also, you can get it to connect to your phone via a voice command ("Alexa connect <device name>"), when you want to use it.

You can use the Echo as a bluetooth speaker.

You can.

In the spotify app on my phone or computer I can choose an echo dot (or group of multiple alexa devices) as the output device.

Alternately, you can pair with an echo dot and use it as a bluetooth speaker.

I use Spotify, all of my Echo devices show up as different outputs in the Spotify app, along with the groups I've set up ("Everywhere").

I just discovered that if you say “Alexa, Spotify connect” then anyone can connect their phone as long as they’re on the same WiFi network as the device.

Google Home also has BT now. So you can play anything over BT. I use it for my Audible.

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