I recently switched our home phone service over to Google Voice so we could drop our phone bill and have free nationwide calling. Since it's a standard VOIP service that can configured in various apps and devices, it would be nice if it could be integrated with Alexa. I don't think that's going to happen, however, considering that they're marketing their own service. Maybe if Google Home gets VOIP integration I'll have a reason to switch.
It would be awesome if you could hook this up to a SIP/VoIP provider and make calls that way, especially if you could hook it up to an Asterisk system in the home. I've been hoping that Amazon would add that feature for a while. 🤞 that Amazon will add this feature.
I also changed my Echo device wake word to "computer" to give aTrek feel to it but quickly changed it back because I didn't realize just how many random mentionings of the word COMPUTER are used in a given day by people, radio, TV and internet videos to name a few. I found my Echo device constantly waking and respond to most of them.
When it rings, it rings all the Amazon Echo devices at once. It answers on the closest unit. I'm hoping they will enable the user to swap devices if they want to go to another room, or even answer on all the devices at once that way you can move from room to room. A friend of mine and I pre-ordered the two pack of Echo Show. We're both early adopters, and suckers for technology. LOL Google had better step up their game in they're going to hope to gain a bigger market share. I have 4 devices from each (1 Echo, 3 Dots, and 4 Ghomes). I love them all, but would ultimately prefer to have all Google.
Definitely on my wishlist, but I want three since my I have two story apt. Great video! I wanted to comment earlier, but I was too lazy to log in. Thank you!
OK mine is The 3rd generation i bought like a week ago. And I make a call trough the device and later i realize that my iPhone was off because was running out of battery. But the person I called was there all the time. My question is the call was trough my WiFi or using my Data Plan from the phone or something what else. As always thank you for your time and videos.
Nope, no Skill needed! There's an article on our site all about how to make it work. The setup process will ask you to upload your Contacts from your phone to Amazon so it can identify any matching numbers you have with your other Contacts who have also setup the Alexa Calling / Messaging feature. Here's the link: smarterhomelife.com/everything/2017/5/11/how-to-make-a-phone-call-on-your-amazon-echo
+David Folders Do you have the latest version of the Alexa app? The icon should be the middle in a set of three at the very bottom of the newly updated app.
thank you, nice review!! can I please ask, does messaging/calling work between echos in the same household, if you have more than one device? i'm in the UK and we haven't had the calling update yet.
ok thanks!! :) I can't imagine that the update will take long to come to the UK. hopefully Germany too. wonder if the echo will become available in other countries?...I notice the Google Home will soon be available in a few more countries. will you buy a Echo Show? it looks really good :)
my alexa keep saying " I couldnt find x contact ", I wanna know if this feature only works with people who have the alexa app ?? do they need to b login ? thank you so much !
Correct. The feature will only work with those people who have enabled calling and upgraded their Alexa app. They don't necessarily have to be logged into the app or have it running, but they would need to have gone through the setup process to make sure it was up and running.
Hello, I have attempted to contact Amazon regarding the call capabilities of the Echo, and the Echo Dot. I am paralyzed from my shoulders down, and having the ability to call 911 could potentially be a lifesaver ! Would you possibly have the ability to have any greater leverage, or contact affectiveness than I do ?
Torrey Ellison you need to update your alexa app on the phone first. when you open the app it'll automatically guide you thru. Make sure you allow to access your contacts. If you calling your echo from cellphone, you need to call yourself in alexa app
Ah, oops. Amazon seems to be keeping that information to themselves, sadly. It's most likely delayed for setting up UK English for transcribing voice messages to text and such. But it shouldn't be too long.
There wasn't a need to bring phone numbers and contacts into this in order to be highly useful. They ruined it's potential. Such is the echo. I was honestly really really excited until I realized it required a phone number and contacts. This is aweful. Could have been so cool. p2p communications (locally or over the interwebs) with other paired echo's or users would have been really useful. Like an intercom/messaging system. Alas this isn't that. Which just makes this more of a liability to the end users more than anything. Nice review, glad to see someone is enjoying this heavy handed feature. Now "tell 'some skill' to retrieve a simple endpoint from a url!" So close echo. So close. Phone numbers are just a liability now, for communication. leveraging them further isn't something we should continue to welcome. Just my opinion though :)
Does anyone else find this funny as he say the words "Computer Call Sheridan." Anyone here. recall a very popular science fiction TV series. that people use to say the Words. Computer.
not yet here in the UK :( Why doesn't Amazon like us Brits? I shall jolly well like to call my neighbours with a U to have a chinwag about tea and crumpets 😂
I'm guessing they will offer a 'monthly' home phone service plan soon, that will allow you to make and receive calls from landlines for a small monthly subscription rate. After all that's really what most corporations want, repeated monthly income from any source they can get it from.
(0:54) I give you thumbs up for not activating my echo!
I give you thumbs up for your profile pic! Eduard!
Jung Y what's with the link on my phone ??? what are you really up too??
Heather p I'm taking control of your youtubes and pointing it to a specific position in the space-time continuum. Nothing fancy, really.
gawd bless ya dude for not activating my echo! Props given!!
I recently switched our home phone service over to Google Voice so we could drop our phone bill and have free nationwide calling. Since it's a standard VOIP service that can configured in various apps and devices, it would be nice if it could be integrated with Alexa. I don't think that's going to happen, however, considering that they're marketing their own service. Maybe if Google Home gets VOIP integration I'll have a reason to switch.
“The A-word,” “What’s-her-name.” 😂
😉
It would be awesome if you could hook this up to a SIP/VoIP provider and make calls that way, especially if you could hook it up to an Asterisk system in the home. I've been hoping that Amazon would add that feature for a while. 🤞 that Amazon will add this feature.
Exactly!
Like it so far. My daughter lives in another state and we've had fun with it so far
I also changed my Echo device wake word to "computer" to give aTrek feel to it but quickly changed it back because I didn't realize just how many random mentionings of the word COMPUTER are used in a given day by people, radio, TV and internet videos to name a few. I found my Echo device constantly waking and respond to most of them.
I miss this echo
Thanks for sharing your maiden voyage!
You bet!
When it rings, it rings all the Amazon Echo devices at once. It answers on the closest unit. I'm hoping they will enable the user to swap devices if they want to go to another room, or even answer on all the devices at once that way you can move from room to room. A friend of mine and I pre-ordered the two pack of Echo Show. We're both early adopters, and suckers for technology. LOL Google had better step up their game in they're going to hope to gain a bigger market share. I have 4 devices from each (1 Echo, 3 Dots, and 4 Ghomes). I love them all, but would ultimately prefer to have all Google.
Definitely on my wishlist, but I want three since my I have two story apt. Great video! I wanted to comment earlier, but I was too lazy to log in. Thank you!
Thanks for your kind words!
I showed my mom and sister my mom was excited
OK mine is The 3rd generation i bought like a week ago. And I make a call trough the device and later i realize that my iPhone was off because was running out of battery. But the person I called was there all the time. My question is the call was trough my WiFi or using my Data Plan from the phone or something what else. As always thank you for your time and videos.
The call goes through Echo and your Wi-Fi network, it uses Amazon's proprietary "Alexa Communications System". And, thanks! :)
Pretty cool I will try it out
Can you use a echo in one room to call another echo in the same house. Basically can you use it like a intercom?
Christopher Busch yes you can but you might get some feed back depending how close the echos are
Did you have to install a 'skills' to get this to work?
Also, how do you add someone to your contact list.
Nope, no Skill needed! There's an article on our site all about how to make it work. The setup process will ask you to upload your Contacts from your phone to Amazon so it can identify any matching numbers you have with your other Contacts who have also setup the Alexa Calling / Messaging feature. Here's the link: smarterhomelife.com/everything/2017/5/11/how-to-make-a-phone-call-on-your-amazon-echo
Hey cool video just tell me this... Can I call to another phone directly using my echo dot?
Yes. They turned that feature on a few months after this video was made.
And, thanks! :)
Is there a way to block certain dots from ringing when calls come in via echo dots ?
Yes. There's a Do Not Disturb option in the Alexa app under Settings, and it works per-device.
This is fantastic! :)
So the only way to use the call to call is the other person needs one got it
Can you do a how to setup video?
There will be an accompanying article posted soon on the setup, which is super-simple.
Smarter Home Life I'm struggling to find the connect or communication icon in my ipad alexa app
+David Folders Do you have the latest version of the Alexa app? The icon should be the middle in a set of three at the very bottom of the newly updated app.
So Cole
So you changed your name commend to Computer ?
How did you do that ?
It's under the Settings menu in the Alexa app, under the specific Echo device that you want to change the "wake word" for.
was it google's home shown in the end :)
Yes
Do you have to manual update the echo or it automatically update itself?
It will auto-update itself, just download the latest version of the Alexa app to your smartphone, run thru the quick setup and you're good to go.
Smarter Home Life thanks :)
Is it me or is the music too loud in the beginning....compared to later narration
Earlier videos had some issues with volume levels, this has been addressed over the years.
thank you, nice review!! can I please ask, does messaging/calling work between echos in the same household, if you have more than one device? i'm in the UK and we haven't had the calling update yet.
Thanks! Reports are that yes, calling does work between Echos in the same home. We're hopeful that you'll get the feature over there soon!
ok thanks!! :)
I can't imagine that the update will take long to come to the UK. hopefully Germany too. wonder if the echo will become available in other countries?...I notice the Google Home will soon be available in a few more countries. will you buy a Echo Show? it looks really good :)
Peter Powis the update came to the UK. A month ago
If only it could make regular phone calls. Google just introduced this (for free) at Google I/O, the Google home isn't gets its own phone number.
+Joshua Long Exactly, there will be some great competition and innovation now 😊
Crypto World stfu clown
Since when they installed RGB LED in it??? I though that was only blue/red!
+Yehua Zhang Evidently they've been there all along 😊
Smarter Home Life awesome！
my alexa keep saying " I couldnt find x contact ", I wanna know if this feature only works with people who have the alexa app ?? do they need to b login ?
thank you so much !
Correct. The feature will only work with those people who have enabled calling and upgraded their Alexa app. They don't necessarily have to be logged into the app or have it running, but they would need to have gone through the setup process to make sure it was up and running.
Hello,
I have attempted to contact Amazon regarding the call capabilities of the Echo, and the Echo Dot.
I am paralyzed from my shoulders down, and having the ability to call 911 could potentially be a lifesaver !
Would you possibly have the ability to have any greater leverage, or contact affectiveness than I do ?
Regulations and such stop this. But in the future it will change. I heard you can call a buddy or so as a way around this however.
I can't get mine to work
Torrey Ellison you need to update your alexa app on the phone first. when you open the app it'll automatically guide you thru. Make sure you allow to access your contacts. If you calling your echo from cellphone, you need to call yourself in alexa app
anyone know when we will get this in the UK?
It appears that it already is available over there: amzn.to/2qu6rja 😊
sorry not the Echo we have that, its the call feature we do not have
Ah, oops. Amazon seems to be keeping that information to themselves, sadly. It's most likely delayed for setting up UK English for transcribing voice messages to text and such. But it shouldn't be too long.
"The LITTLE SISTER is listening" :-)
Nice
Why cant you just use a tablet you already have at home and download an app
+Shaun Griffin It should work on tablets, too.
Extremely hot dot on dot action going on there!
There wasn't a need to bring phone numbers and contacts into this in order to be highly useful. They ruined it's potential. Such is the echo. I was honestly really really excited until I realized it required a phone number and contacts. This is aweful. Could have been so cool. p2p communications (locally or over the interwebs) with other paired echo's or users would have been really useful. Like an intercom/messaging system. Alas this isn't that. Which just makes this more of a liability to the end users more than anything. Nice review, glad to see someone is enjoying this heavy handed feature. Now "tell 'some skill' to retrieve a simple endpoint from a url!" So close echo. So close. Phone numbers are just a liability now, for communication. leveraging them further isn't something we should continue to welcome. Just my opinion though :)
Cool
Hi
No
The a word is "alexa or amazon"
Does anyone else find this funny as he say the words "Computer Call Sheridan." Anyone here. recall a very popular science fiction TV series. that people use to say the Words. Computer.
0:59 Alison burgers
Alexa
Dxg
not yet here in the UK :( Why doesn't Amazon like us Brits? I shall jolly well like to call my neighbours with a U to have a chinwag about tea and crumpets 😂
I'm guessing they will offer a 'monthly' home phone service plan soon, that will allow you to make and receive calls from landlines for a small monthly subscription rate. After all that's really what most corporations want, repeated monthly income from any source they can get it from.