If you have an Amazon Echo in your home you already know how useful it can be. In addition to turning on your lights, playing music, and checking the weather, you can also use your Echo devices to make phone calls and text messages — even if the people you’re calling don’t have an Echo device of their own.

Unfortunately, this feature is not available for all customers. According to Amazon, you also can’t call numbers outside of the US, UK, Canada, and Mexico, as these are the only regions that currently support Alexa calling.

But there is a solution that could help. It called Cally Assistant by Voody.co.

With Cally Assistant you can send voice messages hands-free to any person in the world with your Alexa device. It works as Alexa Skill and available for all Alexa-enabled devices so you don’t need to download and install additional apps. Just tell Cally a person’s phone number and a message you want to pass. The assistant will call that person, and tell your message after she or he picks up the phone.

How do I make a call using Alexa?

1. Enable the skill “Cally Assistant” on Amazon website:
   https://amzn.to/34ph3m8
2. Say “Alexa, open Cally Assistant”. First time the assistant will ask for your name and phone number to confirm your identity. You should tell your phone number in international format, without “+” in the beginning. Once you completed, you can call anyone.
3. To make a call simply say
   “Call [name or phone number] and say [your message]”.
   For example: “сall my boss and say I will be late”. The skill doesn’t have access to your phone’s address book, so you need to add the contacts separately. A person will receive a phone call regardless of whether they own an Alexa-enabled device.

Technically you won’t be able to speak to the person directly: the Assistant will call the person and just transmit your message by voice. But this can be especially useful for many situations when you can’t wait for the person on the other end to respond or need to pass a message quickly, and be sure that it will be read. Cally will call the contact and speak your message.

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This approach is similar to Google Duplex — a project from Google that allows certain users to make a restaurant reservation by phone. Cally is not limited for online booking, you can use it to transmit any messages.

Can I call any number?

With Cally Assistant you will be able to dial a much broader range of numbers, comparing to built-in Alexa Calling. This includes international numbers, but there are a few notable exceptions:

• Emergency services numbers (e.g. “911”)
• Premium-rate numbers (e.g. “1–900” numbers, or toll numbers)
• Any local X-1–1 numbers or abbreviated dial codes (e.g. “211,” “411,” etc.)
• Dial-by-letter numbers (e.g. “1–800-FLOWERS”)

How much does it cost?

Cally Assistant offers 3 days trial with all functionality. Then you have the ability to choose one of 3 plans depending on your monthly usage. The Small Plan includes 10 calls per month and costs $0.99. You can upgrade it by subscribing to Medium Plan and get 30 calls in total (worth $1.99/mo) or buy a Big Plan with 50 calls each month (worth $4.99/mo).

What if I don’t have an Echo?

You don’t actually need an Echo to make a call using Alexa. Just invoke skill “Cally Assistant” form Alexa app on your smartphone (iOS or Android).

Happy calling!

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How to use Amazon Alexa to make calls and send messages outside of the US, and UK? was originally published in Chatbots Life on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

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