BT Advanced Digital Home Phone with Alexa Built-In Works Only With BT Smart Hub 2

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A positive aspect of analogue phone services is that they continue to work in a power outage. That's not true of digital services. Match of the Day Football Quiz – The official Match of the Day magazine now has its own Alexa app, which asks you a series of questions to see how well you know your favourite team. To get started, just say ‘Alexa, open Match of the Day Magazine’. You'll also still have to pay for calls in the same way – that's even the case if they're delivered using your broadband connection. How will digital voice services be connected to my home?

These are our favourite and most frequently used features and commands: 1. Set a reminder for a time and activity Minute Mindfulness – This beginner-friendly skill aims to detach you from stresses and strains in just one minute. Upgrading to full fibre services has more of an impact because fibre optic cables need to be installed through to your home. An engineer visit will always be required to set up the service which will be connected using either overground or underground cables. If you are on a call, you can also change the volume, by pressing the navigation button up or down. The demise of the PSTN is linked to the roll-out of full fibre broadband in the UK, although the two aren't on the same timeline. While phone services will no longer use the copper network by the end of 2025, the aim is for full fibre coverage to reach 85% in the same year.Google's Chromecast Audio was another option at one point, but again that device is no longer on sale. In the UK, BT is currently in the process of upgrading their landline phone network to utilise Digital Voice technology for calling. This is ahead of an industry-wide change that’ll see the old analogue phone network being switched off in 2025. When you sign up to BT’s Digital Voice service, you’ll be able to choose from the following handset options at no extra cost: The Advanced Digital Home Phone with Alexa built-in is a cordless device so it connects wirelessly to your Smart Hub 2 router. Because of this, you can use it pretty much anywhere in your home. According to BT, the phone has a 50m range indoors and a 300m range outdoors.

If you’re an existing BT customer, you’ll be offered a free upgrade to Digital Voice over the next few years. Once you’ve been invited to the service, you can follow BT’s guide on moving to Digital Voice. The product uses DECT Technology, therefore, each handset has a range of up to 50m indoors/300m outdoors from the base station (in ideal conditions). It’s not just about the handset features. Digital Voice also gives you crystal clear HD calling. This means incredible sound quality on your home phone – almost as if the person you’re speaking to is in the room with you. Headspace – Enabling the Headspace Skill gives you instant access to daily meditation and sleep exercises. When you’re away from home, you can swap over to the smartphone application for walking and running guides. To get started, try saying ‘Alexa, open Headspace’ or ‘Alexa, tell Headspace I’m ready to meditate’. Note that if you want to give the Headspace Skill a go yourself, you’ll need to create an account for free. When they receive a message, the light on their Echo will flash yellow – to hear the message, they just need to say “play message”. They’ll also receive a notification on their smartphone or tablet via the Alexa app, where they can play the contents if they’re away from their Echo speaker.Digital Voice also comes with our Call Diversion Feature too. If you’re heading out, you can simply divert calls to your mobile and never miss an important conversation. Ingredient Sub – Have a lovely recipe idea but missing one ingredient? This handy skill saves the day. Simply ask: ‘Alexa, Open Ingredient Sub’ and you’ll be given good options you can use as a substitute. And no, Alexa can't call 911, either. Easy access to emergency services is one of the big reasons why a lot of people still hang onto their landline (especially people with children), so it's hard to imagine them seeing Alexa as a legitimate replacement for the phone they've already got. Voice of the day – This free Alexa Skill challenges you to identify the famous voice from a short sound clip. To try Voice of the Day for yourself, simply say ‘Alexa, open Voice of the Day’. To repeat the sound clip, just say ‘Alexa, play the clip again’.

Still, Alexa is much, much more than a voice-activated home phone, and her other selling points are already well-established. People will still buy plenty of Echoes and Echo Dots and perhaps Echo Shows, too, even if they aren't buying them strictly as home phone replacements. Rather, those Echo devices will add an additional, convenience-oriented layer of communications into people's homes, thanks to the voice-activated family chats and handy intercom capabilities. Follow the on-screen instructions. Alexa is now deregistered from your hub. If you want to use the Alexa service again. Press the Alexa button and follow the set-up instructions. With Echo Connect and a compatible Echo device, you can ask Alexa to call anyone using your phone landline at home. Echo Connect routes call through your number, either landline or VoIP, so that friends and family recognise who is calling on their caller ID. The Advanced Digital Home Phone with Alexa built-in is a real game-changer for your home. Available only on Digital Voice our new home phone service. Giving you a future-ready connection at home that makes keeping in touch with loved ones even better. The new phone is another step towards BT’s existing plan of having all of its landline calls run through broadband by 2025. The handsets achieve this by connecting to a user’s BT Smart Hub 2, which in turn allows Alexa to operate. What other features does BT’s new phone have?Pointless – Fans of Pointless on BBC One can put themselves to the test with this free Alexa Skill to find the most obscure correct answers possible. Say ‘Alexa, play Pointless’ or ‘Alexa, ask Pointless to explain the rules’. The phone network that has existed since the Victorian era is coming to the end of its life. While its physical infrastructure remains similar to when it was installed, our communication needs have changed immensely. Alongside this, broadband connections rely increasingly on fibre optic networks. These not only offer faster speeds than copper but are also more reliable, more resilient and easier to maintain. Find out more about how fibre broadband and standard broadband compare in our guide to the benefits of fibre broadband. The traditional phone network isn't the only communications infrastructure that's being modernised – read about the UK 3G network switch-off , and what it means for you. When shopping for new additions to your smart home setup, look for the 'compatible with Alexa' branding. Some internet-enabled products will only work with Apple's Siri or Google Assistant, although most are compatible with more than one AI helper. How to make any speaker Alexa-compatible

Connect to another Bluetooth speaker – To partner your Alexa device with another Bluetooth speaker, open the Alexa app, select Devices, then Echo & Alexa. Tap your device, then select Bluetooth Devices. From there, select Pair A New Device. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the setup. Alexa is the main draw here, but BT has also detailed other features that will be present in the Advanced Digital Home Phone.If you’re switching from another home phone or broadband provider, it’s easy switching your service over to BT. You can also keep your current phone number when you move to BT’s Digital Voice service. I want to share with you some information about a digital home phone available on BT’s Digital Voice service. This particular home phone comes with Alexa built-in 😃 However, there is a chance you may be migrated sooner if the infrastructure in your local area fails, as malfunctional copper lines and phone exchanges aren't being replaced. How do digital voice services work? If you like, you can also use your existing phone with BT’s Digital Voice service. However, you may not get the benefits of HD-quality calls unless your phone is already compatible with the HD Voice feature. It’s also possible to do this using the Alexa app on your smartphone or tablet. Just open the app and select the Conversations button.