If you live in a house (or office for that matter) that has two or more Amazon Echo devices, the good news is now you don’t need to buy intercoms if you need to get in touch with the other people in your house if they’re in the same room as an Echo. That’s because the latest update to Alexa, the voice digital assistant that powers those Echo devices, enables you to use them as a hands-free intercom system.
The way this intercom functionality works is pretty simple. It enables an Echo device, whether it’s the original one or the smaller Echo Dot or the display-based Echo Show, to talk to each other, as soon as you do all the steps necessary. First off, you need to update the Alexa app for Android to the latest version. Then you will have to name each Echo device based on where they’re located in the house. So the device in the basement has to be named “basement”, etc.
Then you will have to ensure that the drop-in functionality is enabled in the Alexa app settings. After you’ve followed all those steps, you can now use Alexa to trigger the intercom functionality with commands like “Alexa, drop in on the basement” and it should automatically wake up the Echo device there and so you can speak to whoever is there in the basement (hopefully, people, and not ghosts).
You can even use the intercom functionality when you’re not at home, if your device supports the Alexa app. If Alexa is your gal, over Google Assistant or whatever other voice digital assistants are there, then this should be useful for you. Well, if you have Amazon Echo devices as well of course.
VIA: SlashGear
