Amazon is starting to roll out an update today for Fire TV Cube owners, with which they’ll be able to start making video calls from their TV.
These are two-way video calls that are powered by Alexa. So you can talk to Alexa through the Fire TV Cube and ask it to make video calls to anyone you have in your contacts that Alexa has access to.
Of course there are some things you need. Beyond the Fire TV Cube your TV has to have an HD web cam attached to it. Though you don’t necessarily have to call another user who’s on the Fire TV Cube. As long as they have an Alexa smart display with an HD camera built-in, or they’re on their smartphones, the video calls should work just fine.
Fire TV Cube video calls can be made to any Alexa-enabled device with a screen
If it has Alexa built-in, and it has a display, you can receive these video calls on it. As noted above any Fire TV Cube user can make video calls to another Alexa user. So long as the device on the receiving end has a display on it. You can also use the video call feature to make an audio call through Alexa to a device that doesn’t meet the video calling requirements.
This includes Fire tablets and other tablets that have Alexa integration. Which is plenty of devices at this point. For Fire TV Cube owners, it has to be a gen 2 model of the device.
And those users need to have a web cam that meets specific requirements. That being said those requirements aren’t hard to meet. And numerous devices should be compatible. Amazon says that the web cam has to be USB-powered, and it needs to support UVC with compatibility for at least 720p resolution and 30fps.
Amazon has suggestions for which web cam to use
While there are likely more web cams that support the two things Amazon highlighted, it has some suggestions.
These are web cams that Amazon knows will work. And it includes the Logitech C920, the Logitech C922x, and the Aukey PC-LM1E among others. Keep in mind that you may also need to pick up an adaptor if your web cam doesn’t use USB-A.
You will also need to enable the video calling feature within the Alexa app. Or the new feature won’t work. Once that’s done, if you’ve got an incoming call you can say Alexa, answer, and the call will be picked up. If you want to make a call, you can say Alexa, video on, and it’ll start a call.