Amazon's Echo speakers are among the most popular smart home devices. Amazon has packed its Echo lineup with useful features and gone to great lengths to ensure they work and integrate with many third-party services and smart home devices. One little-known feature of the Amazon Echo is its ability to make free voice calls to others. The feature takes a little leg work to set up, but it's well worth the effort.

You'll need the Amazon Alexa app for your Android smartphone or iPhone to get started, which can be downloaded through the Google Play Store (Android) and App Store (iOS). Once you have the app, open it and sign in with the same Amazon account you use for your Echo devices to get started.

How to set up Alexa calls for your Amazon Echo

First, open the app and tap the communicate button in the bottom left corner. You'll need to confirm your name and phone number before proceeding if you haven't already. Once you've done that, you can make calls with your Echo by saying, "Alexa, call Optimus Prime," and before you know it, the call will start.

There are some things to note before you get too carried away. These calls are free, but there are some limitations. Echo speakers can only call numbers from the US, UK, Canada, Mexico, Austria, Germany, Japan, India, Belgium, Chile, Bulgaria, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Colombia, Cyprus, Estonia, El Salvador, Ecuador, Greece, Finland, Iceland, and Hungry. Even if you are making a call to one of these countries, premium-rate numbers will still incur a charge, and you can't use Alexa to call emergency services. Aside from those limitations, you can make phone calls to any landline or mobile number in your contact list. This feature is compatible with all Echo speakers, and if you have an Amazon Echo Show, you can initiate video calls.

Amazon's Echo lineup cannot be used to make emergency calls. If you need to contact emergency services, please use a landline or your mobile phone. You can also set up Emergency SOS for Android phones or Emergency SOS for iPhones.

"Alexa, Drop-In on..."

In addition to regular calls, you can turn Echo devices into intercoms with Drop-In. It works similarly to the broadcast feature on Google's Nest devices, allowing you to broadcast a message to a specific Alexa smart speaker. But Amazon has an advantage over Google—dropping in on people outside your home.

To set up Drop-In, you'll once again need to return to the Alexa app:

• Open the Alexa app and tap on the communicate tab in the bottom left of the screen.
• Tap on the person icon in the top right corner.
• Tap on your name where it says my communication settings.
• Turn on the toggle that says allow Drop-In.

Drop-In is now enabled, and you can say, "Alexa, drop in on the living room Echo Show" to broadcast to that room. There are two other things we need to configure with Drop-In — which contacts can Drop In on you and which Alexa devices they can do it on:

• Open the Alexa app and tap on the communicate tab in the bottom left of the screen
• Tap on the person icon in the top right corner.
• Find the contact you're looking for and tap on their name.
• Under permissions, switch on the allow Drop-In toggle.

Now that your contacts are configured, you may want to limit which of your Amazon Echo devices can use Drop-In, either by yourself or others.

• Open the Alexa app and tap on the more tab in the bottom right of the screen.
• Open Settings.
• Scroll down and open device settings.
• You'll see a list of all your devices. Find the one you want to change, and open it.

• Tap on the settings cog in the top right corner of the screen.
• Scroll through the list and open communications.
• Tap on Drop-In.
• Select on at the top of the list.

If you'd rather nobody can Drop In on that device at all, even within your household, you can repeat those steps and set Drop In to off instead.

Now that everything is configured to your liking, you can call your friends hands-free with voice commands. Having free calls over Wi-Fi to any home phone or mobile is a boon for Alexa users, helping them stay in touch with their friends and family for free.

Whether you're experienced with the Amazon ecosystem or a newcomer trying an inexpensive Echo Dot, you'll want to learn how to get the most from your device. Amazon frequently runs promotions for its Echo lineup, and it's pretty much a given that you'll see them on sale during Amazon Prime Day 2022, held on July 12th and 13th. If you're not a member, you may want to check out some of the perks Amazon Prime members are entitled to and set up a free trial to capitalize on the discounts.