Thanks to the Alexa calling feature, you can use two Amazon Echo’s (or Dots, Shows, Spots, Taps), or an Echo device and your phone, as a baby monitor. Whether you plan to do this full time, at a friend’s house or in a napping emergency, it’s a simple procedure.
What you need:
- An Echo device in the room with the baby
- Your phone with the Alexa app installed or another Echo device
- Alexa calling enabled (and set up to allow calls from friends if at someone else’s house)
- Enabling drop in is a plus in case you lose connection
- Turn the volume all the way down on the device in the baby’s room. This will keep you from being heard while the baby sleeps, and if you have to reconnect with drop in, it wont make a loud chime when you connect.
- From the device in the baby’s room, call or drop in your other Alexa device. This could be another Echo, or even your phone.
- If you called your other device, answer it in the other room.
- Leave the connection open while the baby sleeps, and when the baby wakes up, simply end the call.
If you happen to own Echo Spot’s or Echo Show’s, you can use them as a video baby monitor in the same manner.
For more ways to use Alexa to help with babies, check out Ten Ways an Amazon Echo can Help with Babies!
If you don’t already have one, why not create a free Amazon Baby Registry
UPDATE (12/13/18): One company has taken this idea to a new level with the Project Nursery Smart Baby Monitor. They’ve built their own Alexa enabled smart speaker (that looks just like a first gen Echo) and added a movable, night vision camera with a temperature monitor.
From the product description:
- Use the Alexa Enabled Smart Speaker to move the camera, play lullabies and sounds, record video, capture photos, detect motion/sound and do temperature readings in the nursery; Add on an Echo Show, Spot or Fire TV and use Alexa to view your little one!
You can add up to four cameras, and control them from your phone or tablet as well as any Echo device.