Tech Tips
Your Smart Speaker Can Help in an Emergency
With the right settings and subscriptions, your smart home assistant can help you call or contact your loved ones in an emergency. Here are some options for Alexa and what they’ll cost you.
- The “Drop In” feature on Alexa. It’s nothing fancy, but if you’re an Alexa user, you can call another Alexa-enabled speaker directly like you would with an intercom system. When enabled, the person on the other end doesn’t need to answer or accept the call for you to talk to them! Cost: Free.
- Alexa Emergency Assist. With this home security feature, you can say, “Alexa, call for help,” and an urgent response agent will call for first responders. Alexa will help you call 911 and the device will share crucial info, like medical conditions or a gate code, with medical personnel. Cost: $5.99/month for Amazon Prime members or $59/year. Not a Prime member? It’s $7.99/month.
- Alexa Together. This is a monthly service full of care-taking features. It allows you to check in on loved ones or get them help no matter how far apart you are — all for the same price as your Netflix subscription. 24/7 urgent response, fall detection, custom alerts, remote assistance and reminders from up to 10 contacts in your “Circle of support.” Pretty fancy for the price tag! Cost: $19.99 per month (or $199 per year).