That would be a very useful feature. I would definitely use that frequently. But as I understand from the development side of things, everything must go through Amazon's servers. There is no direct way to connect to your Echo. You pointed out that a Foscam camera can do this. With Foscam (or most other network cameras), you don't go through any servers. You might use a dynamic DNS, but your connection is still directly from your smartphone to your camera. In a way, that is a bit less secure. But also, since everything for the Echo must go through Amazon, there are probably going to be a lot of issues if private conversations are all passed through Amazon. Would FCC start regulating that? Would Amazon be taxed as a telecommunications company? That would certainly be classified as a carrier.