If you have several Amazon Echo devices lying around your house and you want to save time calling everyone down to dinner, this new Alexa feature will make your life easier. You can now turn all your smart speakers into a home PA system as you can now make one-way intercom messages through your Alexa voice assistant. Google Assistant also previously introduced a feature like this so it makes the multi-room speakers all the more useful especially if you’re part of a big household.
Basically, if you say, “Alexa, announce it’s time to get up”, this will be broadcast to all the Echo devices that are connected around your house. You can also use the “Alexa, tell everyone” and “Alexa, broadcast” commands and it will be echoed (hehe) to all the rooms where your smart speakers are located. And it won’t be Alexa telling them, the user’s own voice will be the one heard over the Echo speakers.
There are also sound effects that can trigger and accompany your announcements. For example if you want to wake up everyone, say “it’s time to wake up” or “rise and shine” and you’ll hear a rooster crow. If you’re trying to concentrate and want everyone to shush, say “Everyone be quiet” and it will be accompanied by a ssshhhh sound. You have other things like feet running (let’s go), twinkle twinkle (time for bed), dinner bell (obviously), and even a playful kiss for when you want to say “love you” to everyone.
To be able to use this, you need to assign all the Echo speakers to one household profile. You’ll eventually be able to use it with all other Amazon devices that have Alexa since some of them are starting to get hands-free Alexa mode like the Fire 7 and Fire HD8.
VIA: SlashGear
