Alexa can be used as your phone — and you can try it now

Alexa can exist used as your phone — and you lot tin effort it now

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

Fifty-fifty if you've ditched a landline number in favor of taking every phone call on your cellphone, y'all tin can now apply your Amazon Alexa speaker as your phone with Verizon with a new monthly addition plan.

The characteristic, called Number Share - Home, lets Verizon customers make and receive hands-free phone calls through whatsoever of the best Alexa speakers. This includes the Amazon Echo Dot, Amazon Repeat or Amazon Echo Testify. And when you buy whatsoever of these Alexa devices through Verizon, yous'll go three months to try Number - Share Abode costless.

If you know all almost how to employ Alexa, yous might know one of the best Alexa skills is the pick to connect your AT&T number to your voice assistant. Now Verizon customers tin benefit from the same calling flexibility.

I maintained a Verizon landline number for a long time, even if I didn't know the number tied to my past apartment (oops.) Only when I moved into my electric current dwelling, I finally bypassed the option to add a landline with one of the best Verizon plans for mobile-merely users. Since it's my job to test the best smartwatches, I normally have something on my wrist letting me know when my phone is ringing, anyway.

iPhone with Verizon calling in Alexa app — (Image credit: Future)

Even so, there are times when I miss calls considering my smartwatch is charging and my smartphone is on silent. With Number Share - Habitation, i of the many Alexa speakers in my dwelling house (namely the Amazon Repeat Prove 8 and Amazon Echo Dot with Clock) can warning me of an incoming call, complete with chosen ID. When I place I phone call through an Alexa speaker, my Verizon cellphone number will appear to my recipient, also.

Previously, I knew how to make a phonation or video call using Amazon Alexa'due south native communication service. This is separate from my cellphone'south calling services, though. I could miss likewise in-app Alexa calls when I was out — with Number Share, an Alexa smart dwelling routine can stop calls from being sent to my speakers if I'grand not there during certain hours of the twenty-four hour period.

Perhaps the biggest benefit of this feature, though, isn't making convenient calls to your friends but elevating your in-home prophylactic. You tin't use Alexa independently to phone call emergency services unless yous pay for Alexa Baby-sit Plus ($four.99/calendar month). Verizon's Number Share - Home costs the same per Alexa-paired phone line per calendar month, letting y'all use your phone to call 911.

Number Share - Dwelling house is available now. You tin enable information technology in the Alexa app past going to More > Settings > Communication and selecting Verizon from the list of account options. Y'all'll demand to sign into your Verizon account to authorize Number Share.

Once more, if you buy an Alexa-enabled device from Verizon you'll get three months of the service gratis. If you already have an Alexa speaker you lot'll start with one month free, and so you can try it out to come across if it's useful to y'all. From at that place, information technology'due south $5 per phone line per month.

Looking for more Alexa communication tips? Meet how to change Alexa's voice, how to make Alexa speak faster or slower or how to change Alexa's name, giving the banana a new wake word.

Kate Kozuch is a senior writer at Tom's Guide roofing wearables, TVs and everything smart-domicile related. When she's not in cyborg mode, you lot can find her on an do bike or channeling her inner celebrity chef. She and her robot army volition rule the earth one day, merely until then, reach her at kate.kozuch@futurenet.com.