Alexa Calling and Messaging

where did you get the app it is not showing as an update in the google play store for me.

This is crazy!!! I have been waiting for that stupid update all day long and I just went back to google play for the 100th time today and there it was. All is working now, thank you.

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They roll it out randomly
it will probably update in the next 24 hours
Some people got it yesterday and mine just showed up today. My wife’s showed up yesterday
so, yeah
go Google.

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See post above I just got it, thanks for the help.

Yep
was replying when you were
glad you got it.

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Not a flawless implementation. Lotsa lag, like the old VOIP stuff prior to Google Phone.

But still petty cool. Immediately brings to mind the old folks. Mom and dad in their late 80s, but want to continue to live on their own? Put a few Echo dots around their home. You can call them that way, they can call you if they’ve “fallen and can’t get up”, you can listen in if you think it’s warranted, they can say “play pandora jazz” and get music
 all for $50 and an internet connection.

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I’m a little slow on this fancy tech stuff, so I could be wrong. This tip might help fellow old farts like me. To get the “drop in” function to work, you need to use the Alexa app on your phone (I hate those little buttons). I first tried to set it up on my computer & tablet with no luck. Updated the app on my iPhone and this new option appeared.

Soooo
 now that push notifications are here, all they need do is open up a way to allow android intents to be sent to it
 then ST could use your Echo devices, plus motion sensors, to alert you in whatever room you are in.

Technically, push notifications are NOT here for external skills like Ask Alexa. The assumption is that they ARE coming, but no developers outside of those with an NDA are privy to how they will be implemented. Think yellow light and a tone indicating a message has arrived. The speaker blurting out a message will probably NOT be a feature at this point.

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Best part, just like you said, all for 50 Bucks!

Man, I am really loving these Dots. I picked up a six pack way back when for X-Mas gifts for others and ended up keeping 4 for myself in addition to the 5 echo/dots we already had.

Now with this new intercom feature, I feel I need about 3 more!

I hope whole home audio is coming next!

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As long as whole-home audio is configurable - as in, I don’t want it - I’m ok with them doing it.

What I hope for next is voice identification. So that if someone on TV says “alexa, buy me an Apple HomePod”, it does not obey them. lol
Seriously
 personal security via voice print is on their main agenda. And they’ve been good about rolling out the other main agenda items recently. So I’m hoping to see it by year end.

In any event, they are clearly not waiting around for Google to catch up. They are leading from the front, pushing the functionality aspect, and making it almost impossible for Google or Apple to catch up any time soon.

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This is something I do find quite annoying. I was given an Echo Dot two weeks ago for my birthday. As a software developer the last 30 years I of course started to dig into everything that it could do. Conversations looked intriguing especially with the firmware update that makes the echo glow yellow when a message is waiting.

First problem: my iPhone is an old 4S on Sprint. I basically use it for phone calls and a little bit of app usage. The bulk of my iOS activity is done on my iPad Air which I really prefer using. It took several attempts to get the Alexa app working on the 4S as it is so dang slow and kept crashing during setup. However, once it was set up, I was able to set up conversations and leave a message for a friend who has an Echo. I decided that I would like to try conversations on my iPad Air. Surprise! No conversations button. I thought maybe the app was out of date or maybe some setting was turned off. After all, I can do just about everything on the iPad Air as I can on my iPhone 4S as long as they are on the same LAN such as sending texts and initiating and answering phone calls. I am very surprised that Amazon has not incorporated that level of integration between iOS devices on the same network. I will eventually upgrade my iPhone, probably to a used 6S later this year, but it seems odd that the iPad app is hobbled in its ability to perform conversations with the Echo.

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https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/9/29/16387398/amazon-echo-free-voice-calls-us-canada-mexico

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I tried this out today. However, I’m not sure how to leverage my contacts on my phone. The only contacts the Alexa app shows me are people I know who own an Echo device of some sort. I can only tell Alexa to call the numbers I recite, but I can’t tell it to call any of my contacts that don’t own an Echo device.

Anyone getting a broader list of contacts in their Alexa app? I’m running the app on my Galaxy S8 (Android).

Ok, I figured it out. The Alexa app itself doesn’t show any contacts who are not also Echo owners, but if I tell Alexa to call any of my phone’s contacts, it does. For example, “Alexa, call John’s cell phone” will find “John” and attempt to call the mobile number associated with that phone contact. My previous attempts didn’t work because the name wasn’t in my phone’s contacts. (I had asked Alexa to call “mom”.)

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I was under the impression that it requires Echo connect. Does it work without one?

It works with my Echo and Echo Dots. I believe Echo Connect is if you want your land line to act like a speaker phone. So I imagine it would handle incoming calls, and your outgoing caller id would be your land line. When you use the Echo and Echo Dot it’s using VOIP and uses your the cell phone number you registered in your Alexa app as the outgoing caller id. It won’t handle incoming calls.,
 unless it’s echo to echo.

You need a echo connect to receive calls from landlines/cell phones.

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Just did this. It’s awesome. It’s not finding some of my contacts, but I think that’s an issue on my end.
Edit: yep, the issue was on my end.

I can see this replacing some of the less-wonderful business conference call devices out there.

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