T-Mobile customers can now use Alexa to make hands-free calls

Amazon’s virtual assistant, Alexa, has the ability to make and receive calls. However, this feature wasn’t available to people who subscribe to T-Mobile. But that’s changing as Amazon is now teaming up with the US carrier.

In a blog post, Amazon announced that it’s partnering with T-Mobile to enable hands-free calling. The feature arrives as a new T-Mobile Alexa Skill that customers can use to link their mobile number to Alexa. Once a phone number is linked to an Alexa account, hands-free calling will be possible on all Alexa-enabled devices connected to the account.

This feature will automatically turn all of your Alexa-enabled devices into phones. So if you get a call, it will ring on every device. Thankfully, you can manage which devices are used to make and receive calls. You can also disable incoming calls and make it so your devices only do outbound calls.

This new development means that, for the first time, all three major network carriers in the US now support this feature. However, T-Mobile customers get to use the feature for free, whereas Verizon charges its customers $5 per month.

In order to enable the feature, you just have to head on over to the Alexa app and tap on More. From there, you’ll need to go to Settings and select Communications. There you should see T-Mobile under Accounts. When you tap on T-Mobile, you’ll be presented with a few instructions to link your account.

After everything is set up, you can use prompts like “Alexa, call Mark” or “Alexa, dial XXX-XXX-XXX” to make a call. When you receive a call, Amazon says Alexa will announce who’s calling. You’ll be able to answer calls by saying, “Alexa, answer call” or reject calls by saying, “Alexa, dismiss call.” In addition, Amazon states that users will also be able to call 911 in the case of an emergency.