Table of contents for Amazon Echo: The Complete Guide in Amazon Echo: The Complete Guide

Right from the very beginning, Amazon’s voice assistant was a very clever piece of software indeed This is the Amazon Echo, an entirely new way to control your virtual life. Moving away from the tapping, scrolling and pinching of our touchscreen-equipped devices, the Amazon Echo wants you to instead use your voice to unlock its world of functionality. This is made possible thanks to ‘Alexa’, Amazon’s cutting edge voice assistant. Simply say the magic word (‘Alexa’ by default, but this can be changed to a couple of alternatives including ‘computer’), and the device will light up to show that it’s listening for your command. Want Alexa to read you the news? Just say, “Alexa, what’s the news?” Fancy some music? All you have to do is ask. But with so…

One of the things that made the Echo devices popular was how open Amazon was with the Alexa virtual assistant. Any developer can make a skill for Alexa using the Alexa Skills Kit. This meant that it was easy for electronics manufacturers to find ways of making the Echo work with their products or even building Alexa into them. There are a lot of devices currently on the market that can be controlled through the Amazon Echo – There are light bulbs, TVs, plugs, door locks and much more that can be controlled using Alexa voice commands. For the majority of devices, connecting it to work with your Echo is as simple as enabling the Skill in the Alexa app and then pairing through the skill’s interface. If you own…

After you’ve used an Amazon Echo device, you will fall in love with the convenience it offers, and with five models of Echo on the market, each offering their own unique features, at some point you will think of what you could do with another one in the house. Amazon has recognised this and over time added features that benefit those who own more than one Echo. You can make calls from one Echo device to another, you can group them together to play music around the house, and each Echo has technology to ensure that only one Echo at a time is carrying out your commands. Who knows? Amazon may be working on more features right now for those who have adopted multiple Echo devices. Adding a second Echo…

Your Echo can do a lot out of the box and there are plenty of other smart devices on the market that can interact with Alexa when paired. But for those gadgets that won’t pair as easily with an Echo, some clever people have made Applets to make it possible. It not only adds more functions to your Echo, but it also makes your other gadgets a bit smarter too. By going to ifttt.com/amazon_alexa you can find all the Applets that work with the Echo and Alexa. You might be surprised to learn that Amazon has used IFTTT to make its own Applets. Scrolling through the website you can see how many users have enabled the Applet, while to the right you can find icons showing what devices it works…

Tea. Earl Grey. Hot How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? Alexa can be a handy tool that makes life a bit easier but it can also be fun to play around with. The Echo devices come with a small piece of paper that lists helpful phrases to start using Alexa with tasks, but there are hundreds of things you can ask or say to Alexa that aren’t listed. We’ve tried countless commands and questions. These are our favourite things to say to Alexa that elicit funny responses from your Echo (and sometimes smart devices too)… 1 Open the pod bay doors… 2 Winter is coming… 3 Surely you can’t be serious… 4 Beam me up… 5 I want the truth… 6 Is the…

The redesigned Echo is now smaller than the first generation model and can be customised to fit your home Simply named the Amazon Echo, some people know it as “the Alexa device.” The redesigned Echo is now smaller than the first generation model and can be customised to fit your home. There are six shells to choose from including fabric, wood and a metallic finish. If the shell you have doesn’t fit in with your home’s furniture, you can purchase a new shell and change it over by pushing the button at the base of the Echo. Another big change from the earlier model is the removal of the volume dial. Instead, the Amazon Echo has two volume buttons on the top of the device. The Echo can deliver better…

The Echo Dot is meant to fit in a variety of different spaces, but we recommend that for the best results when setting up you plug it in in the same room as your Wi-Fi router to avoid connection issues. Being smaller than the Amazon Echo, you’d think the setup process is shorter, but it isn’t too different from the regular Amazon Echo. If you plan on connecting your Echo Dot to an external speaker, it’s best to wait until the app says it is the time to do so. The setup process can be broken down into three main sections: powering up the device, installing and setting up the device with the Alexa app for your smartphone or tablet, and connecting to an external speaker. While the Echo Dot…

Having an Amazon Echo with Alexa ready to obey your every command is a wonderful feeling. With that microphone hanging on your every word… but you see, it’s also a problem, for the same reason. The most basic model, the Echo Dot, is equipped with just a microphone; at the other end of the scale, the Echo Spot and Echo Show feature a webcam and mic as well. In short, there is the potential for breaches of privacy and security. The microphone is always on, while there is no guarantee that webcams are switched off when not in use. The Drop-In feature is a potential privacy nightmare, meanwhile, automatically accepting video calls from your contacts without your consent. Imagine if you’ve just got out of the bath! While Amazon Echo…

The popularity of IFTTT is down to two things – the fact that it’s instantly accessible to everyone courtesy of the provided Applets in the ‘Discover’ tab, and also because it’s infinitely customisable for more advanced users. Creating Applets can be very straightforward – if the two services you wish to connect are supported on the platform, it’s as simple as completing the initial connection, configuring the trigger, selecting the ingredients and finally configuring the action. Pressing the ‘Search’ button within the mobile app will present first a list of services recommended for you, then the categorised list of other services to browse. A text-based search is also available. By clicking an item in the list, it’s possible to see a short text-based description of the service, some sample Applets…

The Echo Dot features far-field voice recognition, so the device will still hear you even when music is being played Sometimes referred to as the “hockey puck” due to its size, the Echo Dot is a good option if you’re wanting to try Alexa out at a more affordable price point. Its small size has meant it is lacking in the sound department compared to all other Echo devices. It does have a 0.6” tweeter but it doesn’t have the 360-degree room-filling sound of the Echo or Echo Plus. It probably sounds no better than your smartphone’s speaker. We recommend using the 3.5mm jack aux-out at the back to hook it up to an external speaker system. If you don’t want to use the 3.5mm output you can use Bluetooth…

Connecting to devices such as the Philips Hue smart lighting system is as simple as asking Alexa to find compatible devices If you’ve used an Echo device before, you may look at the Echo Plus and ask, “So what’s new?” Well for the most part, it’s the same as the previous generation Echo. It’s the same size as a first-generation Amazon Echo, it has the same design as it did back in 2015 and it only has two buttons while all other Echoes have four. But there are two notable differences that make it stand out. It has Dolby-powered speakers, which means it sounds better than the previous generation of Echo. The big difference between the Amazon Echo and the Echo Plus however is it acts as a hub for…

Fire 7 Tablet Price: £50 Website: amazon.co.uk Amazon’s range of tablets unsurprisingly includes its AI assistant. By pressing and holding on the circle button on the screen, the user can ask Alexa to send messages, make video calls or play content from one of the services on the tablet. Similar to the Echo Show, having a screen means that information from Alexa can be shown as well as explained. Sonos One Price: £199 Website: sonos.com The Sonos One adds the ease-of-use from Alexa with Sonos’ excellent sound quality. If you have additional Sonos speakers you can ask Alexa to play music through a specific device, or have two Sonos Ones in the same room and pair them for stereo sound. Garmin Speak Plus Price: £N/A / $230 Website: garmin.com Not…

The entire process is done through the Alexa app, taking only a few minutes For a device that’s meant to be the hub for a smarthome, where it is kept in your house may be something you’re debating. We recommend that you keep the Echo Plus close to your Wi-Fi router at all times to avoid any interference. The ZigBee smart home hub built into the Echo Plus makes it incredibly easy to connect to compatible smarthome devices. However, the setup process for the Echo Plus is no different to the Echo Dot. The entire process is done through the Alexa app, taking only a few minutes. Any updates to the device are done automatically in the cloud once it is connected to the internet. Once your Amazon Echo Plus…

Although more and more devices and services are being connected to the internet, particularly due to the growth of the ‘Internet of Things’, it’s becoming ever harder for the average user to get apps and devices to actually talk to each other. Unfortunately, despite the growing popularity of APIs (‘Application Programming Interfaces’) – the technical building blocks needed to make computer systems work with each other – not everything on the internet plays nice, so IFTTT is on a mission to make connecting services together accessible to everyone, with no programming or technical skills required. IFTTT stands for ‘IF This Then That’, which reflects the rule-based nature of the service. Originally launched in September 2011 with a small number of Applets created just by the founders, IFTTT has now graduated…

No device is perfect, and while we hope your Amazon Echo always works flawlessly, there is a chance you may eventually come across an issue. We’re going to take you through some of the Amazon Echo’s most common problems and let you know how to resolve these issues. Before you give up hope on your device, know that a lot of the problems can actually be solved by making a few changes either in the Alexa app or by moving your Amazon Echo to be closer to your Wi-Fi router. Not every Echo model can be fixed the same way, so if there are differences between each model, we will let you know. The first step is to turn off the Amazon Echo, walk away and leave it for a…