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You can now use your Echo speakers as an intercom system

If you've ever wanted to use your smart speakers to make a household announcement, you're in luck: Amazon is rolling out an Echo intercom feature right now.
By
April 5, 2018
Amazon Alexa Skills
TL;DR
  • A new feature called Alexa Announcements enables you to make an Echo intercom system throughout your home.
  • The Echo intercom uses multiple Echo speakers and requires only voice commands to set up.
  • As of right now, only U.S. and Canadian customers will have access to the Echo intercom.

If you hate going around every room of the house to alert the family that dinner is ready, Amazon is about to make your life a whole lot easier. Starting today, Amazon is rolling out a new feature called Alexa Announcements which turns your multiple Echo speakers into a makeshift intercom system.

According to Amazon, “millions of customers” have multiple Echo speakers in their homes. Using this new Alexa Announcements feature, you can use those speakers together as a one-way Echo intercom using only your voice without any extra set up necessary.

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Features

Using the dinner example, you could say, “Alexa, announce that dinner is ready,” and every Amazon Echo device in the home will simultaneously announce that dinner is ready. Conversely, you can use the hot words “Alexa, tell everyone…” or “Alexa, broadcast…” to issue your announcements.

It was not immediately clear at press time whether the announcements would also come out of Alexa-enabled devices like Amazon Fire tablets, but it’s likely that only smart speakers will work with the feature. However, perhaps Amazon could introduce an expanded feature set like that in the future.

Amazon did clarify that, as of right now, Alexa Announcements will only be rolling out to U.S. and Canadian customers.

If you have a multi-room set of Amazon Echo hardware, let us know in the comments if you can get this new feature working!

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