iPad, Fire, Android tablets can all use Alexa’s free calling and messaging

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Users of Fire, Android or iOS tablets can download the Alexa app for free calling and messaging between other users or even “Drop In’ unannounced.

Amazon’s intelligent personal assistant, Alexa, is no longer dependent on the company’s Echo speaker for making free calls and sending messages.

Everyone’s invited. Now, as long as you have an Android tablet, iPad or one of Amazon’s Fire tablets, you can use the Alexa app to contact other users. Therefore, even someone using an iPad will be able to call a home with the Echo device.

With the Fire HD 10 you don’t even need to touch the device to activate a call, simply ask “Alexa.” Other generations, such as the Fire 7 and Fire HD 8 will require the user to press the Home button. Meanwhile, other compatible devices will require the app to be opened and the contact selected.

If privacy isn’t an issue, there’s a feature called Drop In, which, if enabled, allows you to instantly communicate with other Alexa devices as a kind of intercom in your home.

Additionally, as Alexa is now able to listen out for your command and the bot is constantly “listening,” once the conversation is initiated through asking a question, another question can follow, without repeating “Alexa.” To activate this setting, access the speaker via smartphone and select Follow-Up. JB

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