A new Ooma skill for Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant now lets you initiate phone calls using your Amazon Echo or Fire TV. After enabling the skill and linking it to a free Ooma account, simply say “Alexa, use Ooma to call [PHONE NUMBER].” Alexa will then ask you for a nickname for that number, so that in the future you can simply say something like “Alexa, use Ooma to call Mom.” After asking to make a phone call, your phone will ring. When you answer it, the number you asked to call will be ringing as if you started the call. You don’t use the Echo or Fire TV to talk to the person you’re calling. It’s just a feature that saves you from unlocking your phone, finding your contact, and starting the call. It’s as if you had a personal assistant who hands you an already ringing phone after you tell them who you want to call.
While Ooma does sell a voice-over-IP device, which allows you to make internet calls, the hardware is not required to use this new Alexa feature. All that is required is a free Ooma account which grants you “300 minutes per month of complimentary calling, and up to a 1,500 minute lifetime maximum.” If you find you’ve exceed the free quota, you’ll have to sign up for an Ooma Telo account, which runs about $10 a month and comes with additional features like voicemail and international calling.
This isn’t the first time Ooma has teamed up with Amazon. For a while, the two ran a promotion which gave away a free Fire TV Stick when you purchased Ooma’s voice-over-IP device. To get started using Ooma with Alexa, just enable the skill through the Alexa app or web portal, then select the link to link Alexa with an Ooma account. You’ll be asked to create a new free account if you don’t already have one during the linking process.
So many united states only uses and features on the aftv.THey offer nothing new to uk users.
Exactly
Yes this is pretty cool. I was playing with this last night. With my AFTV2 I can say “Alexa use Ooma to play my voicemail”. And it does it. The fireTV1 box on the developer preview does not do this yet.
Supported commands
http://support.ooma.com/home/amazon-alexa-integration/#can-i-check-my-ooma-voicemail-using-alexa
I’m not quite clear on this. I do have an Ooma phone system, but I’d rather make calls on my cell phone. Will Alexa actually make the call on my cell phone?
This does NOT allow you to talk and listen to calls THROUGH your alexa (or echo). Thats really what most people want. It will make your phone ring, and then connect the call basically, but thats about it (it all takes place on your phone). I think what we all really want is a skill that will play the call and handle voice playback and microphone reception THROUGH the echo.