Android Central: Amazon's next Echo is coming later this year

Friday, March 3, 2017

Amazon's next Echo is coming later this year

Soon you may be able to call your BFF from your couch without touching a phone.

Amazon is beta testing new hardware for its AI assistant Alexa, and is also working on adding voice call support that will allow us to make calls entirely with your voice.

As reported by Recode, several unnamed sources have revealed that along with allowing for voice-initiated calls, Amazon is also looking to add intercom functionality between Alexa-enabled devices in your home.

From the Recode article:

As of last month, the new hardware was in beta testing inside of Amazon. Sources say they expect an announcement in the coming months. An Amazon spokesperson declined to comment."

This follows news reported by the Wall Street Journal last month that Amazon and Google were both looking to add voice call functionality to their respective smart speakers. It would seem that Amazon may be the first to reach that goal.

At this point, we don't know the finer details of exactly how voice calling via Alexa will work — will you simply need to sync your current cell phone number to your speakers or get a dedicated home phone number? We're also curious to know how it will work with multiple users who each have their own contact lists and whatnot. Either way, this new feature for Amazon's smart speakers seems like it will essentially act as a futuristic twist on the landline phone — something we've collectively been replacing with our smartphones over the past decade and a half. Meanwhile the intercom functionality could be really cool, but would obviously require you to have multiple Amazon devices connected throughout your home.

We'll have more details on this as the official announcements are released in the coming months.

What do you think? Is this a feature that you've been wanting from your Amazon Echo? Let us know in the comments!