Did Anyone Ever Really Need a Smart Display?

When modern smart displays first arrived in 2017 in the form of the first-generation Echo Show, we called them creepy with big potential. Over the past six years, smart displays still feel like a lumbering category with untapped potential--Amazon, Google, and even Meta haven't been able to crack the code to turn a smart display into a must-have home device. It feels like these screens, which let you control smart home devices, make video calls, and ask voice assistants anything, should have had their Big Moment during the era of lockdowns and Zoom-only hangouts. But as Apple demoed during WWDC and Google unveiled at Google I/O, the best smart displays are already in our hands and homes. Both companies have announced software and hardware that take devices you're already familiar with--smartphones and tablets--and turn them into smart displays when you aren't using them.