Amazon Echo FAQ

Stoner

Tom Cruises Left Nut wrote:

Will it auto update or do I need to download updates manually ?

It's an app and it will behave the way you tell it. i.e mines set up to auto update

mrcheez

jobless wrote: »

for those of you that have the dot.... what way to do use the external speaker?... do you it always have it connected via bluetooth or do you have to pair it each time... ? i can imagine this being a pain

Only pair it once.

Can pair to multiple speakers and it plays out of one at a time. If you have all bluetooth speakers turned on, turning off one redirects the music to the other one, and so on.
(the latest-paired speaker is the one that's selected first, then the 2nd-last to be paired is used when the other is switched off...)

Finally if you turn off all speakers the music plays out of the Dot itself.

The Dot speaker is perfectly fine for better-than-small-radio quality audio. So great for background music etc.

K09

Hi,
I am looking for top quality bluetooth speakers to pair with Dot.

I was looking at Sonos Play 1 but for some reason they don't work with Dot. I don't understand why since they are bluetooth.

Any recommendation for bluetooth speakers to use with Dot?

Thanks!

mrcheez

K09 wrote: »

Hi,
I am looking for top quality bluetooth speakers to pair with Dot.

I was looking at Sonos Play 1 but for some reason they don't work with Dot. I don't understand why since they are bluetooth.

Any recommendation for bluetooth speakers to use with Dot?

Thanks!

UE Boom 2s are still going cheap.. must be trying to offload a ton of stock!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bluetooth-Wireless-Speaker-Waterproof-Shockproof/dp/B0141208EA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1480632408&sr=8-1&keywords=ue+boom+2

duffer247

mrcheez wrote: »

UE Boom 2s are still going cheap.. must be trying to offload a ton of stock!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bluetooth-Wireless-Speaker-Waterproof-Shockproof/dp/B0141208EA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1480632408&sr=8-1&keywords=ue+boom+2

I bought a couple of cheap blue tooth speakers for the kids this Christmas and an echo for myself (ahem!) So rather by accident I'm wondering if I can pair them. They're still en route so I emailed the seller and they said they pair with dot but not sure about echo.
Forgive my ignorance but why one and possibly not the other?
I just thought it would be cool to have music playing in more than 1 room
Thanks in advance

adox

K09 wrote: »

Hi,
I am looking for top quality bluetooth speakers to pair with Dot.

I was looking at Sonos Play 1 but for some reason they don't work with Dot. I don't understand why since they are bluetooth.

Any recommendation for bluetooth speakers to use with Dot?

Thanks!

The Sonos are wifi speakers not Bluetooth, although support is coming Ming for them in the future apparently.

RoYoBo

duffer247 wrote: »

I bought a couple of cheap blue tooth speakers for the kids this Christmas and an echo for myself (ahem!) So rather by accident I'm wondering if I can pair them. They're still en route so I emailed the seller and they said they pair with dot but not sure about echo.
Forgive my ignorance but why one and possibly not the other?
I just thought it would be cool to have music playing in more than 1 room
Thanks in advance

The Echo cannot output to a Bluetooth speaker - it 'receives' to its own internal speaker only. The Dot can output audio via Bluetooth or cable. Maybe not a technically correct response, but that's the gist of it.

corvus4906

can someone please give the details on how to install the Alexa app in ireland?


can't find it anywhere and feel like i've been combing these threads. can someone point me to it?

K09

mrcheez wrote: »

UE Boom 2s are still going cheap.. must be trying to offload a ton of stock!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bluetooth-Wireless-Speaker-Waterproof-Shockproof/dp/B0141208EA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1480632408&sr=8-1&keywords=ue+boom+2

Can 2 of these play simultaneously through Bluetooth?

duffer247

RoYoBo wrote: »

The Echo cannot output to a Bluetooth speaker - it 'receives' to its own internal speaker only. The Dot can output audio via Bluetooth or cable. Maybe not a technically correct response, but that's the gist of it.

Thanks RoYoBo, got my hopes up for a second
Would seem a bit strange to have a dot and a speaker together, but at least that's cleared up

givecredit

K09 wrote: »

Can 2 of these play simultaneously through Bluetooth?

Yes, 2 can play stereo through bluetooth. One Left and One Right.
Alternatively you can connect up to 50 of these simultaneously, all outputting the same audio.

K09

givecredit wrote: »

Yes, 2 can play stereo through bluetooth. One Left and One Right.
Alternatively you can connect up to 50 of these simultaneously, all outputting the same audio.

Great. Thank you!

mik_da_man

I've my address set to Dublin in the echo, but if I ask what's the weather it reports weather in Japan!
Is that happening anyone else?

If I say what's the weather in Dublin it works fine...

Atomic Pineapple

Tom Cruises Left Nut wrote: »

I got the app from apk mirror

Will it auto update or do I need to download updates manually ?

The app is just a wrapper around the web app anyway so you're just accessing the web app through a window in the app, so I doubt there'll be updates to the app itself.

corvus4906 wrote: »

can someone please give the details on how to install the Alexa app in ireland?

can't find it anywhere and feel like i've been combing these threads. can someone point me to it?

Just google for it, try something like 'Amazon Alexa app mirror' or 'Amaxon Alex app APK/IPA'

It's easy to find a mirror for Android anyway. That being said the app is just a container for the web app anyway so you might as well just go to alexa.amazon.co.uk anyway.

mik_da_man wrote: »

I've my address set to Dublin in the echo, but if I ask what's the weather it reports weather in Japan!
Is that happening anyone else?

If I say what's the weather in Dublin it works fine...

I set it to Dublin and now it just says "Cannot find weather for that location'

I only got mine last night (dot) and while the device itself is nice and the sound out of it is actually pretty impressive I have to say the short time with it so far has been a little disappointing, the setup was a joke, I tried using the Android app first and it simply would not work at all, it simply would not connect the dot to the wi-fi, I wasted almost an hour trying before getting out the laptop and doing it on a web browser. The browser worked much better but the experience of the app on the browser (and mobile since its just a wrapper) is horrible. It feels very much like an intern's project at Amazon.

I had to make groups with the same name as my Hue rooms to get it to work too, it didn't recognise the ones I had setup in my Hue account despite the identical names. Asking it for radio stations on TuneIn was extremely poor, I was trying UK stations but the only one it got right was BBC radio 1, out of 9 I tried.

It linked to my bluetooth soundbar very well and I love the way you can ask to to connect and disconnect. All my music is on Google Play Music though so without support for it my music options are limited, I'll probably pick up Spotify for the 3 months offer but when that runs out I don't want to be paying for two music streaming services so we'll see.

Overall very mixed opinion on it to start with but it is early days, it does need a lot of polish but I think 40 quid was worth spending on it.

J.pilkington

Have this a few days so here is my initial feedback.

I was having buyers remorse for not getting the dot and sonas speaker but now that I have the full size echo I have no regrets.

Many thanks to BK for the FAQ, a massive help.

I haven't been able to set up a uk iTunes account in order to download the app (no spare email) so have been setting up from the website with no complaints.

I'm having more success with TuneIn than expected, can select newstalk, today fm, Dublin stations and some local ones.

Having the usual location issues of only being able to select O'Connell street which is annoying.

Doodah7

I too set up my Dot last night. Really straight forward through the iOS app and had no issues connecting to WiFi. Also added a Wemo plug socket that the Alexa app found without issue. In terms of location, I was putting in Naas which it wouldn't accept, even though it appeared in the suggestions. However it would accept the suggested Naas Road, Dublin location so I went with that.

In terms of my music, having been an Amazon customer for so long, I was linked to the US site. I was able to change this to the UK site by using my Revolut Card as the payment card and my own address with a NI postcode. Location I changed to UK. Happily, any CD that I have bought in the past fifteen years showed up in my music library and the Dot would play them. This was regardless of whether they had been purchased off the US or UK sites. I don't have Prime.

Children have enjoyed pestering Alexa with questions since set up.

Does anyone know how you can avail of the £3.99 Amazon Music Unlimited subscription?

Tom Cruises Left Nut

tallpaul wrote: »

I too set up my Dot last night. Really straight forward through the iOS app and had no issues connecting to WiFi. Also added a Wemo plug socket that the Alexa app found without issue. In terms of location, I was putting in Naas which it wouldn't accept, even though it appeared in the suggestions. However it would accept the suggested Naas Road, Dublin location so I went with that.

In terms of my music, having been an Amazon customer for so long, I was linked to the US site. I was able to change this to the UK site by using my Revolut Card as the payment card and my own address with a NI postcode. Location I changed to UK. Happily, any CD that I have bought in the past fifteen years showed up in my music library and the Dot would play them. This was regardless of whether they had been purchased off the US or UK sites. I don't have Prime.

Children have enjoyed pestering Alexa with questions since set up.

Does anyone know how you can avail of the £3.99 Amazon Music Unlimited subscription?

Had issues with Naas as well, Sallins good luck !!!

Mine is on O'Connell Bridge ! :pac:

J.pilkington

From what I can make out it seems to be a postcode issue. I tried loads and it will only work with Dublin addresses as they have a postcode (9, 4 etc).

Tried eircode too no good

Doodah7

In terms of TuneIn, I've had the same issues as others regarding RTE Radio One, 2FM and Newstalk. Alexa will confirm what I have asked for but won't play the stations. This leads me to think that this is a TuneIn issue rather than Amazon's.

However RTE Gold works perfectly as does Radio Nova. Didn't get to try others as yet.

The Guardian Skill where it reads out articles is also very cool.

Atomic Pineapple

Mine is O Connell bridge as well with Dublin 1 but it still says cannot find weather for the location. Does weather work for others with this address?

Figured out the issue I had with the App as well, it looks like the app I downloaded was pointing to alexa.amazon.com rather than alexa.amazon.co.uk.

A new one I downloaded works better, its still just pointing to the website though so using a direct link to alexa.amazon.com works too just as well on mobile.

tallpaul wrote: »

However RTE Gold works perfectly as does Radio Nova. Didn't get to try others as yet.

It keeps playing NoFM when I ask mine to play Radio Nova

Prefect_1998

hi guys, my dot is getting delivered today.

main focus for the Dot is to voice conytrol spotify that is playing through my network onkyo..

dont know if it will work ? any ideas ?

Atomic Pineapple

danielle_door wrote: »

hi guys, my dot is getting delivered today.

main focus for the Dot is to voice conytrol spotify that is playing through my network onkyo..

dont know if it will work ? any ideas ?

Yes, connect it via Bluetooth (if you can) or audio cable and it'll be fine.

adox

danielle_door wrote: »

hi guys, my dot is getting delivered today.

main focus for the Dot is to voice conytrol spotify that is playing through my network onkyo..

dont know if it will work ? any ideas ?

If it can connect through Bluetooth then it wont be a problem. If not you will have to use line in.

Zascar

Anyone else having problems with Delivery? I ordered last Wednesday and i still have not got it. I got the Parcel Motel notification yesterday morning but it still have not hit the motel. A friend in work ordered from Amazon on Friday and he got his delivered on Monday!!! Can;t understand how he got his so quick but mine is so slow..

Tom Cruises Left Nut

Zascar wrote: »

Anyone else having problems with Delivery? I ordered last Wednesday and i still have not got it. I got the Parcel Motel notification yesterday morning but it still have not hit the motel. A friend in work ordered from Amazon on Friday and he got his delivered on Monday!!! Can;t understand how he got his so quick but mine is so slow..

Its delayed this time of year

Thankfully they just added a new motel in Naas so I use that and its the same day

If the lockers are busy you have to wait for your slot to be open

Prefect_1998

Atomic Pineapple wrote: »

Yes, connect it via Bluetooth (if you can) or audio cable and it'll be fine.

ah i want the echo to just be the voice control not be the audio source.. via bluetooth.

so the path i want to use is

ask the DOT to play a spotify song on my AV reciever.... if i have the amp linked to spotify .. so dot only sends the spotify app the request..

adox

Just on the weather guys, if you search for "Big Sky" in the skills section and enable it, the Big Sky "app" will ask you to fill in your home address. Put this in and then it will give you the weather for your exact address.
Instead of saying "Alexa hows the weather" you will have to say "Alexa open big sky" or something similar and it will give you your local forecast. Works a treat once you remember to ask for big sky.

mrcheez

adox wrote: »

Just on the weather guys, if you search for "Big Sky" in the skills section and enable it, the Big Sky "app" will ask you to fill in your home address. Put this in and then it will give you the weather for your exact address.
Instead of saying "Alexa hows the weather" you will have to say "Alexa open big sky" or something similar and it will give you your local forecast. Works a treat once you remember to ask for big sky.

How does it work for future rain forecasts?

e.g. while getting dressed last night I had to plan out the work I'm getting done outdoors so was able to ask "Alexa, will it rain in Dublin this weekend" ... and "Alexa, is there any rain planned in Dublin next week"

Was very satisfied with the responses.

adox

mrcheez wrote: »

How does it work for future rain forecasts?

e.g. while getting dressed last night I had to plan out the work I'm getting done outdoors so was able to ask "Alexa, will it rain in Dublin this weekend" ... and "Alexa, is there any rain planned in Dublin next week"

Was very satisfied with the responses.

I know you can specify a future time you want to enquire about, ie "alexa ask Big Sky will it rain at 9pm tonight". Thats as much as I tried. Will give it a go later when home and see if it can forecast rain for the weekend etc and report back.

Atomic Pineapple

danielle_door wrote: »

ah i want the echo to just be the voice control not be the audio source.. via bluetooth.

so the path i want to use is

ask the DOT to play a spotify song on my AV reciever.... if i have the amp linked to spotify .. so dot only sends the spotify app the request..

It will work as the source and pass it to the AV rec via bluetooth.

You will need to link Spotify to the Dot and then the Dot to your AV rec, then you can tell the dot to connect or disconnect the bluetooth and when connected it will play through the AV rec.

You cannot tell it to play spotify on your AV rec and for the AV rec to do the rest.

Delbydog

I missed getting an echo at the black Friday reduced price and see they are back up to £149 on Amazon. Anybody know if they might get reduced again to £119, he asked optimistically? Thanks

bk

Delbydog wrote: »

I missed getting an echo at the black Friday reduced price and see they are back up to £149 on Amazon. Anybody know if they might get reduced again to £119, he asked optimistically? Thanks

Probably during the post Christmas sales.

NakedDex

They may come up again in a Prime day sale, which often kicks off sometime about two weeks before Christmas.

adox

adox wrote: »

I know you can specify a future time you want to enquire about, ie "alexa ask Big Sky will it rain at 9pm tonight". Thats as much as I tried. Will give it a go later when home and see if it can forecast rain for the weekend etc and report back.

Both "Alexa asked Big Sky will it rain this weekend" and "Alexa will it rain in the next seven days" worked perfectly. Gave percentage chances of rain, most likely day/time of rain etc.

mrcheez

NakedDex wrote: »

They may come up again in a Prime day sale, which often kicks off sometime about two weeks before Christmas.

Handy to know... will hang on to my Prime for a while yet.. was going to cancel it this eve.

RoYoBo

mrcheez wrote: »

Handy to know... will hang on to my Prime for a while yet.. was going to cancel it this eve.

Is it the free trial of Prime you have? Even if you cancel now, it will still remain valid for the duration of the trial. I took the offer again this year (in OH's name this time!) and cancelled it a week ago. It's still valid until 13th December anyway.

I usually cancel these offers asap so that I don't get caught out Aside from this time of year, Prime isn't really a good deal for Irish customers. I'm still considering the Amazon Unlimited Music offer though - just waiting a few more days until I instigate that trial. Just getting to grips with the Dot here ...

Doodah7

I started the Amazon Music Unlimited trial on my Dot. £4 a month after 30 days. I was able to get this to work as I'm using Revolut as my payment card.

bk

tallpaul wrote: »

I started the Amazon Music Unlimited trial on my Dot. £4 a month after 30 days. I was able to get this to work as I'm using Revolut as my payment card.

Let us know how it goes.

Pinkman

Has anyone had problems linking it to Audible? It says I have no audiobooks in my Liabry but when I go onto Audible.co.uk I have 3 from when I was on the 90 day trial.Do you have to be an active member for them to show? Cheers

Pinkman

Also, The Guardian is not showing up on the skills for me? I was sure I saw it there when I set the Dot up yesterday. When I do a search there are no results.

mrcheez

Echo/Dot has a built in equaliser. Tried it out and it works quite well on Spotify.

http://lovemyecho.com/2015/10/07/the-secret-undocumented-audio-equalizer-in-amazon-echo/

jogdish

Quick Questions:
If I get an Echo(dot) will saying " ...play Lyric FM/ Radio 1" just work? ( specifically those stations. If not, how much effort required.

Would the above be suitable for a 100% tech phobic person, once someone sets it up for them?

Audio for a bedside table, night time listening before sleep.

degsie

jogdish wrote: »

Quick Questions:
If I get an Echo(dot) will saying " ...play Lyric FM/ Radio 1" just work? ( specifically those stations. If not, how much effort required.

Would the above be suitable for a 100% tech phobic person, once someone sets it up for them?

Audio for a bedside table, night time listening before sleep.

As it's not officially released in Ireland, the local stations are very hit and miss.

As to if its 100% technophobe proof? No product is there as yet.

Orion

Lyric works. RTE Radio 1 doesn't for some reason. You have to tell Alexa to "play 88.5 RTE Radio 1 on Tunein" - however I accidentally said "on Spotify" earlier today and it ignored me and played it on Tunein instead.

Petroglyph

My Echo is on the way. Just wondering if this is possible. I want to get a bluetooth speaker for upstairs and one for downstairs. Can the echo control which one is playing the music? Can i use the echo speaker downstairs and the new BT one upstairs? Thinking of the sonus 1.

mrcheez

Petroglyph wrote: »

My Echo is on the way. Just wondering if this is possible. I want to get a bluetooth speaker for upstairs and one for downstairs. Can the echo control which one is playing the music? Can i use the echo speaker downstairs and the new BT one upstairs? Thinking of the sonus 1.

Just to be sure.. you say "Echo" rather than "Echo Dot"... make sure you have ordered the Echo Dot if you want to use bluetooth.

No you need to use the app to control which one is used (I'm sure they'll update this later to allow you to use your voice).

A way around this is to turn off the upstairs one and then turn on the one downstairs and it automatically transitions. But you can't have both on at the same time and switch between them.

Another suggestion is to go down my route and get two Dots, and you can then instruct each Dot to pair with the respective speaker and play both at the same time (or one Dot at a time for Spotify since Spotify can only play on one device at a time.. TuneIn can play on multiple at the same time though)

Petroglyph

mrcheez wrote: »

Just to be sure.. you say "Echo" rather than "Echo Dot"... make sure you have ordered the Echo Dot if you want to use bluetooth.

No you need to use the app to control which one is used (I'm sure they'll update this later to allow you to use your voice).

A way around this is to turn off the upstairs one and then turn on the one downstairs and it automatically transitions. But you can't have both on at the same time and switch between them.

Another suggestion is to go down my route and get two Dots, and you can then instruct each Dot to pair with the respective speaker and play both at the same time (or one Dot at a time for Spotify since Spotify can only play on one device at a time.. TuneIn can play on multiple at the same time though)

Thanks for that. Its actually the echo we've ordered, not the dot. I wanted it as a speaker in the kitchen. If I got the sonus 1 for upstairs, would it be easy to switch between the two?

mrcheez

Petroglyph wrote: »

Thanks for that. Its actually the echo we've ordered, not the dot. I wanted it as a speaker in the kitchen. If I got the sonus 1 for upstairs, would it be easy to switch between the two?

Not sure.. I think so...

https://www.wired.com/2016/08/amazon-echo-adds-sonos-voice-control-stable/

Black_Knight

Tried ordering just now (I know, waited until it went back up in price :rolleyes: ) but Amazon wont ship to my Parcel Motel or Parcel Wizard address.!!!

EDIT: Weird, I went back to the homepage, added the dot again, changed the quantity to 1 and said deliver to my PM address. Seems fine with it now.

jobless

i know its a little off topic but has anyone purchased a decent bluetooth speaker to pair with the dot for under 50 euro?