If you have a new Amazon Echo Show 8 and you want to try some of its new features, you might be watching this video because you’ve realized they’re not intuitive or easy to set up. So in this video I’ll show you how to set up voice or video calling, which will allow you to call family and friends in other locations, on your Show 8 2nd generation. Technically this is called using Drop In.
How to set up video calling on Amazon Echo
It’s possible to connect to two different Alexa devices used under different accounts, in different homes or locations.
But there’s a few steps required. You’ll need to:
- Enable Alexa Calling & Messaging
- Enable Drop In
- Add your Contact and connect them
How to set up Alexa Calling and Messaging
Yes, first you need to sign up for Alexa Communication. To do this both you and your contact need to set up Alexa Calling and Messaging using Alexa Communication tab of the Alexa app. Here’s how to do it:
- Open the Alexa app
- Open Communicate
- Verify your mobile phone information, and then grant permissions for calling and messaging.
- Optional: Import your mobile phone’s contact list when prompted.
If you’ve already done this it likely won’t give you those steps. But you can go to Home> More>Settings>Communication>Enhanced Features and make sure it’s toggled it on.
Watch my How-To video here:
How to set up Drop In on Amazon Echo
The next step is both you and your contact need to enable Drop In. Here is how to set up Drop In on your device:
1.Open the Alexa app
2.Open Devices
3.Select Echo & Alexa, and then select your device
4.Select Communication
5.Select Drop In (at the bottom), and then select which permissions to enable or disable
How to set up Contacts on Amazon Echo
The last step is to connect you and your contact.
Make sure you’ve added the person you want to communicate with as a Contact inside the Alexa app. You can import your contacts, or if you don’t want to share all that and have to deal with a lot of extra contact clutter, just add them manually one by one… which is what I did.
To add a contact go to Communicate and look for the little person icon icon, choose it and tap Add New .
If your contact has already enabled Alexa Calling and Messaging, you’ll see a permission option that lets you allow them to drop in. Toggle that on. Your contact will also need to do this and give you the same permission.
Once that’s done, you can simply say, “Alexa, Drop In on [contact’s name]”
That’s it. Now you can talk to friends or family by voice or video with one simple command.
The Echo Show is available from Walmart.
**A note about Affiliate Links: TechGadgetsCanada & TechGadgetsInternational is supported by our readers. Occasionally I will include affiliate links in my reviews. I do this partly for convenience of the reader (since I’ll almost always include a link to the company website or similar anyway) in case you want to read more or purchase, but I also may get a small commission from the click, which helps me keep the blog running. If you choose to use this link I thank you greatly for supporting the blog. There’s no obligation or cost to you for using these links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
