You Can Now Place Outbound Phone Calls to Most Numbers With Your Amazon Echo Devices

Along with the various Amazon product unveils today, the company also announced that Amazon Alexa can now place outbound phone calls to most numbers from Amazon Echo devices. Previously, Alexa could only do voice or video calls and messages from Echo device to Echo device or to someone else’s Alexa app, but that has now changed.

Think of this like Google Home calling in that you say the hotword (“Alexa”) followed by a, “Call 503-123-5555.” This should also work if you if your contacts have been added to your Alexa app. Once connected, it’s like having a speakerphone call with the person on the other end. As for what the call recipient will see, Amazon says that it’ll show the phone number you registered in the Alexa app. Should you opt-out of using a number, it’ll show as “unknown.”

I just tried placing a call and my Echo Show nearby says that it can’t currently place calls. I’d imagine an update will rollout any minute now, along with an update Alexa app that will include the feature. Amazon has announced calling as if it should be live. Give in a day if it’s not working just yet.

Additionally, if you pick-up the new Amazon Echo Connect, you’ll be able to place calls and receive them. Without an Echo Connect, you’ll only be able to place calls, not receive them back.

// Amazon