Tech: Amazon's Echo intercom feature is part of a strategy to get you to buy more Echo devices (AMZN)

As Amazon starts to ship its new Echo Show smart speaker, the company is turning the devices and others in the Echo line into in-home intercoms

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As Amazon starts to ship its new Echo Show smart speaker, the company is turning the devices and others in the Echo line into in-home intercoms, according to Business Insider.

It's part of the e-commerce leader's strategy to entice customers to buy and use multiple Echo devices.

Echo owners will now be able to use any Echo device to talk to another Echo that’s registered with the same Amazon account. Amazon already introduced voice calling between the devices and to the Alexa app, and will also support video calling with the Echo Show. It also released APIs to allow developers to display camera feeds from devices ranging from security systems to baby monitors on the Show’s screen. Now, a user with an Echo Show in the kitchen, for instance, will be able to talk to a spouse through an Echo Dot in the bedroom to tell them that dinner’s nearly ready.

These convenience features are part of Amazon’s play to get device owners to regularly use their devices — including, most importantly, for commerce. Among Echo owners, only 22% have used their voice-activated smart speaker to make a purchase, according to exclusive data from a BI Intelligence survey.

The top reason respondents hadn’t was a worry about security, cited by 42%. As consumers use their Echos for more mundane tasks like talking to family members in the next room or checking on security cameras, they will become more used to using voice as a control interface and be more likely to make purchases — provided they know about that capability, which 34% of respondents were not aware of — using their Echos, driving Amazon’s core business.

The US smart home market has still yet to meet the expectations many observers had in the early part of this decade.

The same issues BI Intelligence first identified back in 2015 still plague the space — persistently high prices, technological fragmentation, and consumers' lack of a perceived benefit from the devices.

But the newfound popularity of smart home voice control has revolutionized smart home ecosystems across the country, and convinces more consumers to equip their homes with smart devices on a daily basis. The Amazon Echo, released in 2014, has become immensely popular and capable, awakening users to the utility of both voice control and smart home devices. This has prompted companies to rush to release competing devices and integrate voice control into their smart home ecosystems.

Nicholas Shields, research analyst for BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has compiled a detailed report on the US smart home market that:

• Analyzes current consumer demand for smart home devices based off results from BI Intelligence's proprietary survey.
• Forecasts future growth in the number of smart home devices installed in American homes.
• Analyzes the factors influencing the proliferation of voice control devices in the homes.
• Identifies and analyzes the market strategies of various companies that have integrated voice control into their smart home ecosystems.

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