Amazon Echo Devices Now On Open Sale Online And Offline

Echo Family - Just Ask

Starting today, the Echo Dot, Echo, and Echo Plus are widely available for purchase by all customers in India. Customers can purchase Echo devices on www.amazon.in/echo and over 350 retail outlets such as Croma, Reliance, Vijay Sales, Crossword and more in 20 cities across India. Echo Dot is available at an MRP of Rs 4,499, Echo for Rs 9,999, and Echo Plus for Rs 14,999.

Echo devices are voice-controlled speakers designed entirely around your voice—they are always ready, hands-free, and fast. Alexa is the brain behind Echo devices. Just ask, and Alexa will answer questions, play music, turn the lights on and off, give sports scores, check the weather, call your friends and family and more. With far-field voice control, you can do all this from across the room using just your voice.

Echo users can now keep in touch with each other using the Alexa-to-Alexa calling and messaging feature. To make and receive calls using Alexa, users need to have supported Echo devices or the free Alexa app on their Android or iOS mobile phones. To enhance the entertainment experience, Amazon has introduced the multi-room music feature that allows you to play and control music across multiple Echo devices at the same time. In addition, users can set up routines for Alexa to perform a series of actions from a single voice command, shop on Amazon.in using their voice, and choose from over 12,000 Alexa skills to enhance their Echo experience.

“We are grateful to the customers across India who have helped create the Alexa experience during the invite phase,” said Jayshree Gururaj, Director – Amazon Devices. “We are excited to make Alexa and our Echo devices available for all customers, and we can’t wait to hear about their experiences. Since Alexa runs in the cloud, she is always getting smarter – the Alexa experience in India continues to evolve with new features, even better speech recognition, new localised skills, expanded music selection, and more.”

In October 2017, Amazon introduced Echo devices to India, featuring an all new Alexa-experience built for customers in India. Visit www.amazon.in/meetalexa to learn of all the capabilities of Alexa, which include:

Hands-free Calling and Messaging with Alexa Using Your Voice

With Alexa-to-Alexa calling and messaging, you can easily make and receive calls between supported Echo devices or the free Alexa app on your smart phone, hands-free. No scrolling or searching through hundreds of contacts on your mobile. Your contacts will hear your name when they get incoming calls on their Echo devices (and also see it on the Alexa App), so they know who is calling. Additionally, you can send messages via voice or text to contacts who have a supported Echo device or the free Alexa App. Just say “Alexa, call mom,” or “Alexa, send a message to Vinay.”

Let your family know when dinner is ready, or remind the kids to go to sleep with the Drop-In feature. Drop-in is enabled for room-to-room calling, instantly connect with compatible Echo devices in your home. Just say “Alexa, drop in on the kids’ room.”

Synchronised Music Streaming with Multi-Room Music

Enjoy room-filling music throughout the home when playing songs from Amazon Prime Music, Saavn and TuneIn. You can group multiple Echo devices for synchronised music streaming in every room. Simply use the Alexa app to create groups with two or more compatible Echo devices by naming the group, such as “everywhere”. Once the group is created, simply say “Alexa, play Kala Chashma everywhere.”

Increased Capabilities with Over 12,000 Skills

You can now enjoy more than 1,000 new skills that have been added to the Alexa Skills Store in India since it went live on 31st October, 2017. Many developers published skills with an Indian flavour, enabling customers to listen to devotional songs, finding diverse information ranging from Indian pin codes, Indian Presidents to Indian Railways PNR status, or playing Indian Tambola and Indian GK Quiz. Over 12,000 skills are already available today. These include popular skills like Ola, Uber, Zomato, Goibibo, Tarla Dalal recipes, Times of India, The Indian Express, and GaneshaSpeaks.

Earlier customers could find and discover these skills only on the Alexa app, now you will also be able to find and enable these skills on Amazon.in website and mobile application. Please visit www.amazon.in/skills for more details on Alexa skills.

Prime Members Enjoy Millions of Songs Ad-free on Amazon Prime Music

Listen to your favourite music across multiple International and Indian languages uninterrupted 24/7.  From the classics to the latest chartbusters, listeners can simply ask Alexa for their favourite music by songs, albums, eras, artists and genres or simply enjoy hundreds of specially curated stations and playlists, all ad-free. Sign up for Prime membership on www.amazon.in/prime, to also avail a unique combination of shopping, shipping and entertainment benefits for only INR 999 a year.

Alexa Knows Even More about Local Topics

During the invitation phase, Alexa learnt more about the topics that matter most to you including local knowledge, Indian history, holidays, Bollywood movies, and more. Just ask “Alexa, who was the first person to climb Mount Everest?”, “Alexa, tell me about Ajanta Caves”, or “Alexa, how does an aeroplane fly?”

Alexa can now answer more questions on cricket – from scores and schedules to man of the match and bowling figures of a player. Just ask, “Alexa, what was Virat Kohli’s score?”

Prime Members Can Now Shop with Just their Voice Using Amazon Pay

Prime members can enjoy shopping with Alexa using only their voice. Either purchase products immediately, or add items easily to your shopping list or your shopping cart. Just say, “Alexa, add multi-grain atta to my shopping list” or “Alexa, I want to buy Sandal soap.”

Easily Set Up Your Smart Home With Routines

You can use the new Routines feature to automate a series of customisable actions using a single voice command of your choice. For example, say, “Alexa, good morning,” and Alexa will switch-on compatible lights, read the daily news flash and the weather for the day. Routines can be created based on the time of day and customised for your needs.

Use Alexa to Translate Words and Phrases

Alexa can help you learn new languages like German, French, Spanish and more. Just say “Alexa, translate thank you into French”, or “Alexa, how do you say happy to meet you in Spanish?” to hear the translation.

Pricing and Availability

Customers can purchase an Echo Dot at an MRP of Rs 4,499 at www.amazon.in/echodot, Echo for Rs 9,999 at www.amazon.in/echo, and Echo Plus for Rs 14,999 at www.amazon.in/echoplus. Customers also get a Philips Hue bulb free with the purchase of Echo Plus on amazon.in and select retail outlets. Echo devices will be on available at the Amazon devices kiosk in Bangalore and Mumbai, and over 350 offline retail outlets across 20 cities in India.

About Shakthi

I am a Tech Blogger, Disability Activist, Keynote Speaker, Startup Mentor and Digital Branding Consultant. Also a McKinsey Executive Panel Member. Also known as @v_shakthi on twitter. Been around Tech for two decades now.

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