Amazon Alexa can now send out text messages, rolling out in the US first

Amazon Alexa is playing a bit of catch up with other voice assistants like Apple’s Siri and Google Assistant with this latest update. Alexa can now send out SMS messages but with a few caveats. You’ll need to have an Android phone that’s linked to your Alexa device. But it send to any device that can receive text messages (including iPhones). Also, as mentioned in the title, it’s rolling out in the US first.

You just need to say, for example, “Alexa, text Jerry” and then dictate your message to your Amazon Alexa device. It’ll then “find the best way to send the message,” whether that be through SMS or the Alexa messaging service. If you want to send emojis, there’s no way to do that just yet. To turn on the feature, you’ll need to open the Alexa app and head to the Conversations tab, then Contacts, then My Profile to turn on the Send SMS setting. There’s no word yet when the feature is coming to Canada but what Amazon Alexa can do now is make phone calls to other Echo devices or most regular phone numbers in the country as well as in the US and Mexico.

Source: CNN