Alongside Amazon unveiling its newest Echo devices earlier day before yesterday — the Echo Show with a seven-inch video screen — the company also announced Alexa Calling, free voice call and messaging services that you use through all Echo device (not just the Show), as well as for users of the Alexa app for smartphones.
Meanwhile, users of that newest Echo, the Echo Show, which has the screen and video feature, will get added services, it seems. The one that has jumped out at me first is called “Drop In” — which lets you make a call to someone without them even answering the phone first in the sense. Think of it as the 21st century tech equivalent of someone coming to your house and either peeking through the front window as they’re knocking at the door.
Amazon says that Alexa Calling can be used on any Echo devices and the Alexa app once the user and the user’s intended contact have both enabled Alexa calling and messaging feature. In other word, for now (emphasis on for now; Amazon is nothing less than massively ambitious company), it sounds like you can’t use your Echo Dot to call your friend’s landline But you can use it to call or message your friend if she has a smartphone with the Alexa app downloaded on their phone (and Alexa Calling enabled).
Adding voice and messaging feature here is a very interesting way to utilize the Echo. I’ll admit, it’s had a lot of novelty values in our house for all the skills you can enable on it but ultimately the Echo (and Amazon) might need more features that feel essential in order to really embed it in our lives. Adding voice and messaging communications does this by making it more of a central parts of home communications.
Now, the emergence of yet another new services like Alexa Calling underscores just how comprehensively that business is developing.
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