You can now use your Echo as an intercom, from room to room, or house to house, between friends!
Amazon recently rolled out new voice calling and messaging features for the Echo that lets you check in with friends, or leave them messages. In June, they added a feature that piggy-backs on this, called “Drop In”, which basically turns your Echo into an intercom that can instantly connect to any other Echos on an Amazon family account – or between yours and your friends houses, with a bit of authorization first.
Setting up Drop-in
To use this feature, you must have at least two Echos on your family account, or a friend willing to test this, and a smart phone with the Alexa app installed.
To set this up, make sure that your Alexa app is up to date (at least 2.1.22 on iOS and 2.1.23.2 on Android). Open up the Alexa app and tap the Conversations icon – the text bubble at the bottom of your screen. Follow the prompts to enable the feature.
Now you can “drop in” on the other Echos. Just say “Alexa, Drop In on Susie’s Echo”. In her room, Susie’s Echo will give a distinctive beep, and the light rings at the top of both Echos will turn green and begin rotating. Go ahead and start talking – if there is anyone within earshot of Susie’s echo they will be able to hear you and respond. (Susie’s echo can be in another house, just as long as they are both registered to the same Amazon family account.)
When you have finished your conversation, just say “Alexa, Stop” to hang up on the call.
Allowing other friends to Drop In
For privacy reasons, no one outside your family group can Drop In on your Echo, unless you specifically give them permission to. Here’s how to set it up so they can:
Open up the Alexa app and tap the Conversations icon – the text bubble at the bottom of your screen.
Tap the Contacts icon (the one shaped like a person) in the upper right hand corner.
You will see a list of people in your Contacts list who have set up their Echos. Tap on the name of the person you want to enable, and then scroll down and turn on “Contact can drop in anytime”. Now they can Drop In on you. They will need to do the same thing for you before you can Drop In on them.
Removing friends from Drop In
Go back into your contacts list (where you enabled them) and tap on your OWN name. You will see a list of people who are allowed to Drop In on you, and you can remove them from there.
Do Not Disturb
If you want some privacy, and don’t want anybody Dropping In, just say “Alexa, Do Not Disturb”, and they won’t be able to drop in. Say “Alexa, Do Not Disturb OFF” if you want to enable Drop Ins again. You can also turn this feature on and off within the Alexa app, by going into your device’s settings.
Quality of calls
This works best if you remember to treat the Echos like walkie talkies – in other words, take turns talking. If both people try to talk at the same time, the conversations get chopped off. Just be quiet while the other person is talking, wait your turn, and you should be able to hear the whole conversation.
It also seems to work better if you are standing near your Echo. Even though the Echo can hear you from across the room (or even from another room), the Drop-in feature cannot. It makes you sound faint if you are standing far away from your Echo.
Enabling / Disabling specific speakers
Go to your Echo’s settings (tap on the three-line icon in the upper left hand corner of your Alexa app, then click on Settings). Tap on the device that you want to Enable or Disable. In the “General” section you can turn Drop In “on” or “off”.
You can also change the Device Name in this section, to something a little simpler if you like – for instance, change “Susie’s second Echo Dot” to “The Kitchen”. From then on you can just say “Alexa, drop in on the Kitchen”.
Dropping In from your phone
You can also do a Drop In right from the Alexa App on your phone, while you are away from home, away from your Echos!
Open up the Alexa app and tap the Conversations icon – the text bubble at the bottom of your screen. At the top of the screen, under the word “Conversations” should be a blue bar that says “Drop In” in the center. Tap this.
You will see a list of devices that you are allowed to Drop In on. Tap on one and a Drop In call will be initiated. From there you can talk, turn your speaker on, mute the call, or hang up.