AT&T customers can send texts through Amazon Echo starting Nov. 19

AT&T announced on Thursday that customers will soon be able to use the Amazon Echo to send text messages. The feature will be enabled through a “skill” that will need to be activated through the Amazon Alexa app.

The skill, called “AT&T Send Message” will allow you to use your voice to initiate a text message command. Alexa will then prompt the user to speak his or her text message and will send it off to the contact. Up to 10 frequent contacts can be loaded into the AT&T Send Message function, too, which means you should be able to use commands like “Alexa, text Susie.”

Amazon and AT&T link up

AT&T seems to have established some sort of broad partnership with Amazon for the deal. The carrier will also begin to sell the Amazon Echo and the Amazon Echo Dot beginning tomorrow, November 18, in its retail stores and online. The prices are $179 and $49, respectively, but it seems possible they might be bundled with products in the future.

I just purchased a Google Home, but am now probably going to be more reliant on my Amazon Echo, since this function is pretty darn useful. We’ll see how well it performs come this Saturday.