Amazon now lets you use your Echo like a one-way intercom

Amazon is rolling out a new feature to the Echo today called Alexa Announcements. It’s pretty much what it sounds like: you’ll be able to use your Echo to make announcements to other Echos in your household

It’s basically a one-way intercom. Say you want to tell your kids dinner is ready. According to Amazon, you’d tell your Kitchen Echo “Alexa, announce that dinner is ready,” and the device would repeat that message to everyone else in your home. The announcement is made in your voice too, so your kids won’t think their devices are spazzing out. You could also use “Alexa, tell everyone…” or “Alexa, broadcast…” to initiate a message.

You could previously set up a ‘Drop In‘ feature to help you listen in on other echos and use Alexa like a walkie-talkie, but the process was a little more involved, requiring you to activate the feature on the requisite devices via the Alexa app. The new feature sounds like a much more practical solution for short announcements without having to pull out your phone – which is the whole point of voice assistants anyway.

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