Anyone Can Call You on Amazon Echo (and You Can’t Stop Them) Michael Kwan May 12, 2017 News Alongside the Amazon Echo Show with a touchscreen, Amazon also announced a new feature that will work with non-display Echo devices too. You can call other users using the Echo and the Alexa app. That sounds convenient, except you can’t stop someone from calling you. As it turns out, there is no way to block contacts from calling you via Alexa voice calls (or video calls in the case of the Echo Show). They can bombard you with texts and voice messages and there’s nothing you can do about it. What if you broke up with a significant other and don’t want to deal with them anymore? What if your old cable or cellphone provider is trying to hound you with offers? What if you’re getting harassed by someone you thought was a friend but is not just a creepy stalker? Nope. Nope. Nope. If you’ve imported the contact from your phone, you’re reachable via Alexa calling until you no longer have an Echo or Alexa. From what we can gather, the only way you can stop this for now is to call into Amazon customer service and deactivate Alexa calling on your device altogether. Amazon will presumably address this privacy and security concern at some point in the future. To further add salt to the wound (or to open up another one entirely), there’s word that sponsored messages are coming to Amazon Echo and Alexa too. In between those times when you ask Alexa to call you an Uber or to order you some Domino’s, you’ll get an advertisement for a natural hair loss remedy or something. Sponsored messages aren’t new to the Kindle family, so it really shouldn’t be all that surprising that they’re infiltrating Echo too. Share This With The World!
