Amazon Fire HD tablets gain Drop In video calls and Announcements

If you’ve ever felt the urge to ping an unsuspecting Fire HD tablet owner with a video call, good news: Now you can. Amazon today announced that starting this week Fire HD 8 and Fire HD 10 owners will be able to receive Drop In video calls from Alexa-enabled devices with displays and cameras, like the Echo Show and Echo Spot.The new features are coming in a software update that’ll begin rolling out today. Previously, only the current-generation Fire HD 8, 2017 Fire HD 8, and Fire HD 10 tablets have been supported.Drop In, you might recall, gives you a hands-free way to connect to Alexa devices instantly, without having to wait for the person on the other end to answer. It’s an optional feature and has to be enabled from the Settings menu — you’ll find it under Alexa > Hands-Free Mode, where you’ll also be able to specify which contacts and devices can use it.