Intercom

Intercom lists every EchoLocal device and every LANovo device on your network, found automatically. Open it from the dock or the Apps screen.

Calls

Tap the phone button for audio or the camera button for video. Video needs a camera on both ends. During a call: mute, camera off, hang up.

The Echo Dot takes audio calls: tap the action button to answer, tap volume down to decline. It places them by voice. The ring shows Ring for an incoming call and Ring during a call.

Tap a device’s info button to see its model, address, version, whether it’s in this home, and what it can do: calls, video calls, broadcasts, settings sync.

Calling by voice

With the EchoLocal integration installed, say “call the kitchen” (or “ring”, “intercom”) to any assistant. Between two devices with cameras, “video call the kitchen” starts a video call. The name doesn’t have to be exact; the closest match is called. Turn either off with the voice triggers.

Automations can do the same with the device’s call action, for example on a device named Hallway:

action: esphome.hallway_call
data:
  peer: kitchen
  video: false

Calling from Home Assistant

With the EchoLocal integration, an Echo Show’s card has a phone button: call the Show from a dashboard in a browser or the Home Assistant app, with audio or video. Sound and video go straight between the browser and the Show, so the browser has to be on the same network.

During a video call, the button beside hang-up, or a double-click on the picture, goes full screen.

The Show sees who is calling by their Home Assistant user. To have it answer some of them on its own, set Answer from to Selected and pick them under Users. The list shows the people in Home Assistant that are linked to a user, under Settings → People.

Broadcasts

Say “broadcast” or “announce” and speak your message after the tone. It ends when you stop talking, up to 30 seconds, and plays on every other device in this home. “Broadcast dinner is ready” sends the words as speech instead, using the assistant’s voice; this needs the EchoLocal integration.

A device receiving one plays a chime, then the message; an Echo Show also shows who it’s from. Broadcasts don’t play during a call or while an alarm rings. Turn Receive broadcasts off to stop getting them.

The broadcast action plays an audio file instead: pass its URL as message.

Home key

Devices with the same Home key are in one home. Calls and broadcasts only go between devices in the same home; a device that isn’t shows Not in this home and can’t be called. Devices with no key are all in one home together.

Set the same key on each device under Settings → System → Home key, or with the Home key entity in Home Assistant on the Echo Dot. The key itself is never sent over the network. A device on an older version of EchoLocal only works with devices that have no key.

Answering

Tap to answer. Every option is under Settings → Connected services → Intercom and in Home Assistant:

Setting		Default
Incoming calls	Accept calls	On
Receive broadcasts	Play broadcasts from other devices	On
Auto-answer	Answer automatically	Off
Answer from	Auto-answer Everyone, or Selected: the devices you pick under Panels, the Home Assistant users you pick under Users, and calls from the web page when Auto-answer API calls is on	Everyone
Auto-answer with camera on	Send video when auto-answering	Off
Pause wake word during calls		On
Video stream	Main or sub stream (not on the Echos, which send the main stream)	Main
Ring, Video ring, Ringback	Tones, including custom ones	Ring, Ring, Ringback

The Call and Call with sensors in Home Assistant show the call in progress.