The Echo Show’s screen lets you pull up a bunch of video with a simple voice command. Out of the box, Alexa supports the following video content:
Watch the Video Feed From Your Security Camera
The Echo Show can display a live feed of any supported video camera you connect to Alexa. Companies like Nest, August, Arlo, and Ring have already added support for their video cameras. Ask “Alexa, show me the front door camera” to see an instant video feed of your front door. This is handy if someone rings your doorbell and you want to see who it is before answering. You can also check your indoor or outdoor security cameras if you want to check on your baby or see who’s snooping around outside.
See How Much Time Is Left On Your Timers
The Echo is super useful in the kitchen for settings timers, but the regular voice-only models don’t provide much feedback until your timer is up. The Echo Show, on the other hand, will display your timer on the screen after you set it. When the Echo Show returns to the home screen, your timer will be included in the rotating carousel of cards you’ll see. If you want to see your timers again, you can say “Alexa, show me my timers” to display every timer at once.
You can also set multiple timers and see each one at the same time. So, if you’re hard boiling some eggs while you bake a turkey, you can set individual timers for each one and see how long you have left for each one at a glance, instead of asking Alexa about each timer one at a time. If you want to cancel a timer, you can swipe it to the left side of the screen to delete it while you’re on the timer screen.
Scroll Through Your Entire Calendar
When you ask a normal voice-powered Echo what events you have on your calendar, Alexa will read off the next four events on your agenda. On the Echo Show, say “Alexa, show me my calendar” and you can see a list of every event on your agenda. Scroll down through the list to see all of your events. Tap on any event and you can see more details about that event.
Sing Along to Your Songs With Live Lyrics
Make Video Calls To Anyone With An Echo Show or Through the Alexa App
The Echo Show adds video calling to Alexa’s growing list of messaging features. If your friends or family also have an Echo Show or the Alexa app, you can start a video call by saying “Alexa, call Mom.” If you call someone with a voice-only Echo, then the Show will start a voice call instead. You can also send messages to anyone with the Alexa app or any model Echo.
Using Drop In between Echo Shows will start a video call that you have ten seconds to decline. Otherwise, whoever decides to drop in can see through your camera. All Drop In calls will also cause an audio chime, so anyone in the room should know that a call is happening, but this can still be a privacy issue. Especially when you add people outside your home (or in some cases, inside the home). Think carefully about who you want to give unfettered voice and video access to before you enable this feature. Here’s how to make sure it’s completely disabled.
