Amazon Echo Connect

With a house already filled with Amazon Echo smart devices, it seemed like a good idea to get the home phone onto the system too. At just £29.99 it would not break the bank and if it was no good it could always go back to Amazon.

This device interfaces between the phone and the router to allow Alexa to manage calls under the control of your voice via the Amazon Echo app. It is a small black minimalist box with micro-USB power in and RJ45 phone in ports and on the top a row of LED’s indicating Power, Wifi, Internet and Phone connection status. It comes with standard USB power adapter and a phone line splitter which allows a UK phone socket to be used and gives the option to use a handset or other telephone device alongside with Alexa.

 Physically wiring the device is simple enough.  Just connect the USB cable to a power socket and the phone cable from the RJ45 port to the telephone wall socket using the supplied adapter. The line splitter adapter allows you to plug a phone in here too, useful to keep on hand in case there is a power or network failure or in case Alexa throws a hissy fit, as can sometimes happen.

Connecting up the Amazon software should be an easy process but I found it fiddly and time-consuming as it meant flipping between screens on my mobile phone.  I had to do it several times before it actually worked. Open the Amazon Echo app and follow the steps there to add a new device, selecting Connect as the option. You then have to switch to your phone’s wifi settings control page and select the wifi hotspot generated by the Connect. Doing so allows the Connect to copy and store your Wifi settings. That done you should now test that it is actually working before proceeding.

The Echo Connect will recognise and react to all the contacts in your Amazon Alexa app, and it will offer to import them from your mobile phone’s own contacts list. Of course, you may not want all your phone contacts to be available to anyone in your home with access to Alexa and there is way around this. You can deny the Alexa app access to your phone contacts and then add contacts manually either from within the Alexa app or using the  Alexa web interface with your PC. This is a time-consuming process but does maintain your privacy to a degree.

Making calls using your voice is not quite as straightforward as it sounds. If you ask Alexa to call ‘John’ the following conversation may ensue:

Calling John Smith’s Mobile

You can also call by speaking aloud the number and it will recite it back to you for confirmation before calling, useful and necessary but tedious.  You can make life easier by using the Alexa app to assign nicknames to contacts and their individual phone numbers. John Smith’s mobile can be given the nickname ‘John’, for example, then saying ‘Call John’ will call John Smith’s mobile ignoring any other numbers assigned to him. Once the app is fine-tuned the system does a pretty good job of making the calls you need.  For incoming calls Alexa will answer an and announce the name of the caller if it is in the Alexa contacts or the phone number or lack of it if not.  Both with incoming and outward calls there is a fair degree of latency as Alexa records your voice, sends it off to the Amazon servers for analysis, sends the results back to your home network and then dials or answers the call. After the caller on the other end hangs up there is again a delay of a few seconds before Alexa hangs up her end. To avoid the beeps and buzzes from the open line I find myself telling Alexa to hang up every time.

I have found call quality to be fine on the Alexa end using either the Echo or Echo Dot. The remote caller is clear, loud and distortion free. Callers tell me that often the call quality is a bit crackly their end and of course distant sounding if I am positioned too far from the Alexa device. Hopefully, call quality should improve over time.

If you have multiple Alexa devices around the house you can use the app to select the ones you wish to respond to incoming calls. This avoids a cacophony of noise when a call comes in. I have read that only newer Echo devices can be used for calls but all the ones I have work well with it.

Myself, I have my normal DECT phone system connected in parallel with Alexa but with the ringers turned down very low. That way I have the option to receive or make a call using a handset or allowing Alexa to deal with it. I would not want to rely entirely on Alexa to manage my calls but for those with visual or physical handicaps, I can see it would be a real boon.

So, I would not say the Echo Connect is for everyone, but if you enjoy gadgets and techy toys and are prepared to devote time to fine-tuning the Alexa system or are physically challenged then this may be just what you need.