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Amazon Alexa Will Allow Users To Make Phone Calls With New Device

By Nick Younker
Published on: 13:00 PST, Mar 5, 2017

Amazon has been one of the world’s biggest leaders in internet commerce and technology, but when they introduced Alexa to the world, everything changed. That is because the Amazon Echo featuring the smart technology Alexa initiated an industry wide demand for smart home technology that people can interact with on a daily basis for simple chores.

On the horizon, it appears as though Amazon’s Echo with Alexa will now start giving their customers an enhanced option that will allow its users to make and receive phone calls through the device, according to a report on Recode.

This kind of technology from Amazon should come as no surprise to people who are tech-reliant in their daily lives. Anything that can help a consumer use technology to free themselves up for other tasks was sure to be in demand. The only problem was, nobody knew they needed this kind of technology.

It is still early in the technology advancement phase, but the report states that Amazon Alexa device users will have the ability to talk to each other via their Echo or other Alexa devices. Of course Google has also been considering this kind of technology and functionality with its own in home device, but it appears as though Amazon Alexa is once again beating them to the finish line by rolling this out soon.

The Amazon Alexa phone call technology is currently undergoing beta testing, but there are signs that it will not end with simple phone calls. There have also been reports that the same technology is looking to use video cameras in future devices.

The reason for these kinds of innovations with the Amazon Alexa technology is because Amazon has had a hard time expanding the user experience beyond streaming music or getting weather and news updates. Although the functionality of the Amazon Alexa devices have been highly improved since they rolled out, the user interactions with it have been strained at best.

There is starting to become more of a demand for apps that can be used in conjunction with Amazon Alexa. These apps are for better communications, possibly on social media or direct contact with a user’s contact list. But it is unclear if Amazon Alexa is supposed to sync with a users phone or how it plans to work.

There is an emerging market demand for Voice Over Internet technology, commonly refereed to as VOIP. Many Amazon users also use that technology as part of their plans to “cut the cord,” which was a revolution started by Netflix when it started focusing on user subscriptions to stream unlimited movies and TV shows. When this happened many people started cancelling their cable and satellite subscriptions to opt for a cheaper streaming option that allows them to watch whatever they want, whenever they want.

With the cord cutting revolution, Amazon has also been a leader with a revolving door of video content that can be streamed by their subscribers with the same business model as Netflix. But for people who have Amazon Prime, they also have access to Amazon music and that is something Alexa has been able to capitalize on with consumers, offering them the option to stream their music via voice commands from their Amazon Echo or other Amazon Alexa devices.

It is unclear at this time if Google will be rolling out similar technology with their own home assistant device in the near future. Although Google does have it on their radar, they have not made any announcements about where they are with their technology to allow users to make phone calls from their devices.

At this time, it seems that Amazon Alexa will be the first to market their technology with Echo and other Alexa devices allowing users to make phone calls with the Echo and Dot.

[Featured Image by David Becker/Getty Images]

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