Voice Calls And Messaging Now Available On Amazon Echo

In the beginning, the Amazon Echo and Alexa team-up were simply a form of a virtual assistant to help users with managing their homes, lives, and shopping experience. Recently, the retail giant announced that it will be adding voice call capabilities and messaging options to its product and smart assistant combo. For now, this communication feature is only available within the Alexa ecosystem.

The announcement was made alongside the reveal of the Echo Show, which is basically a touchscreen version of the Echo Speaker and the Echo Dot, The Verge reports. The feature basically allows users to ask Alexa to call someone on its contact list. If a connection is established, the contact’s own Alexa device will start ringing, which isn’t actually part of the original setup.

It’s worth noting, however, that Alexa can only call people who also have Alexa devices. The feature doesn’t allow users to call phones as one could do with Siri on the Apple iPhone. What’s more, the Alexa devices in question should be those made by Amazon, so third-party devices that have the smart assistant integrated into them can’t use the feature.

For those who are starting to think that this is a hugely limited scope, Amazon already has a workaround thanks to the new Alexa app. By installing the official app on a smartphone, users don’t need to buy an Echo device anymore. People within the Alexa community could then start contacting each other even away from their speakers, dots, and shows.

Now, while the new feature does allow users to accept or reject calls at their leisure, there is also a mode called “drop-in” that automatically puts the call through after ringing for 10 seconds. Amazon explains that this service is aimed at family members or close friends and is completely optional, The Washington Post reports.

With regards to the newly unveiled Echo Show, Amazon is basically offering a rather bulky mini-computer that does everything an Echo device is known for. It plays music, shows short video clips, and makes monitoring perimeter cameras easier.