echo and 911

[kolson]

is there a way to have echo initiate a 911 call? Thanks .

[renegade600]

not at this time. 

[fnowling]

I've seen several questions about using the Echo as a telephone, and it has me wondering if there might be legal or regulatory issues for Amazon in providing this kind of functionality.

Any thoughts on this?
Frank

[DParker]

Actually, there is at least one way to use Alexa to initiate an E911 call (or a call to any other number for that matter).  The Ooma (www.ooma.com) VoIP service features Alexa integration, which allows you to initiate a call be saying, "Alexa, ask Ooma to call <name-or-phone-#>".  Unfortunately that's where your Echo drops out of the picture.  Ooma will then setup a call between the phone # you have registered with your sevice and the one you requested be dialed and then ring your phone.  When you pick up your phone the call will proceed with an attempted connection to the target number.

It doesn't turn your Echo into a hands-free phone, but it's a start.

[AskMyBuddy]

Hi!
You may have already found a solution, but check out our 'Ask My Buddy' skill. 
It won't call 911, but you can set up your own network of people to alert when needed. 

[iolinux333]

I just wish there was an update so I could use Echo as a speakerphone when connected to my iPhone as a Bluetooth speaker. I have a cheap $20 Bluetooth speaker that's four years old that can do this. Why can't the Echo?

[restamp]

This is just a guess on my part, but I believe the reason the Echo cannot act as a speaker phone is that Amazon has avoided giving skills any direct access to the microphones.  Instead, skills only have access to the textual component from the mics, after Amazon performs the speech-to-text translation.  I suspect such access has been withheld out of security concerns:  They simply don't want skills to be able to surreptitiously listen in on what the Echo is hearing.  But, until such an interface is forthcoming, it would be very difficult to produce a speaker phone app.