According to the reports reaching us from our sources, the Announcement feature of Alexa which provides one with the ability to broadcast voice messages to other Echo devices has been made available since April this year, meanwhile, Amazon is now opening up the feature to other devices. The company has now made the Announcement feature available for Sonos speakers that have Alexa support such as the Sonos One and the Sonos Beam and even other devices like the Ecobee4 smart thermostat and Switch+ smart light switch.
The feature is most convenient for use when it is being used as a one-way home intercom. For instance, if you’re a parent, you could say, “Alexa, announce that dinner is ready,” and the feature will broadcast the message to every available device that in the house that has Alexa support. A user can even trigger the broadcast feature through the commands, “Alexa, tell everyone…” and “Alexa, broadcast…”
As soon as you create the announcement, you will hear a short chime and then the recording will play across all the devices enabled by Alexa in your house and that includes the two Sonos devices if you have them as well. If you have some devices that you don’t want to get the announcements, you can set it to Do Not Disturb or, you could turn off the feature in the Settings for each individual device through the Alexa app.
The Google Home has a feature that functions in the very same manner. The feature also allows one to broadcast messages across all devices that are enabled by the Google Assistant in a home. Since November last year, this feature has been available to all speakers enabled by Google Assistant, so it appears as if Amazon wants to reach that point where Google is now at with the release of the Alexa Announcement feature to third parties. This feature will proof useful. On the brightest side children could have more authority figures if the thermometer in the house reminds them of their homework, telling them to do it when it’s time.