OK, I’ve fixed my post above so it’s more specific.
There are three separate questions.
-
can you use Alexa on your phone or tablet while you’re at the office or in the car to actuate devices controlled by your home echo device? The answer that one is sure, you can just use the Alexa app. It does not have to be on the same Wi-Fi as the echo device.
-
Can I make a voice request of the app instead of having to drill down through the menus? The answer to that one is also sure, you can voice enabled the app in settings and then there will be a blue logo at the bottom of the Alexa app screen, and once you tap that, you can speak directly to Alexa. Also, location-based inquiries will be based on the location of the device you are speaking to, Not the at home device.
- can I do all of that hands-free? The answer to that is also yes, but it’s not simple the way it will be with the echo auto. You have to have enabled some kind of hands-free navigation for your device. For an iOS device, that would probably be Siri combined with voiceover.
So for me, I have an iPad mounted on my wheelchair. I tell Siri to open the Alexa app, I use a voice navigation favorite to bounce right to the blue dot, and then I am speaking to Alexa and can control the devices at my house. Or ask for directions or whatever.
I’m not sure what the android equivalent would be, or if Bixby on a Samsung phone can do it.
For those of us who already control our phones and tablets hands-free, you kind of do that automatically, particularly on an iOS device, so the only question left is does the Alexa app work in a remote location. And it does. 
