Amazon Alexa and Echo FAQ

garbeth

Got Newstalk to work.

Alexa Play 107.6

If that doesn't work I cycled through 106.0 to 106.9 and then 107.0 to 107.9 and 108.0 to 108.9. 107.6 works for me though.

kennM

degsie wrote: »

Market demographics are incompatible for Amazon's business model so it's unlikely we will see official support here.

Pinged the question to Amazon about release and support in Ireland.... got the following response, good news.

Hello,

Thank you for writing back to us with your concern.

I really appreciate your interest in ECHO.

We're still preparing for the release and not sure exactly when the devise will be released because we are still working on it with the local information so that the devise is completely ready for the launch.

Please be rest assured that the devise will be launched very soon in the Ireland.

mossym

was that copied and pasted? pretty poor if they mis-spelled device every single time, called it "the Ireland", in fact the grammar is all over the place, "please be rest assured"

auto response from an indian based support person i'd say, wouldn't read too much into it

bk

The biggest issue with them releasing in Ireland is that they are using Microsofts Bing Map and Search services, which are pretty horrible for Ireland.

I don't see these services improving quickly any time soon, nor do I see them dropping Bing for Google due to competition with Google Home.

Krusty_Clown

garbeth wrote: »

Got Newstalk to work.

Alexa Play 107.6

If that doesn't work I cycled through 106.0 to 106.9 and then 107.0 to 107.9 and 108.0 to 108.9. 107.6 works for me though.

I've never had an issue with getting Newstalk to play. It used to be:
Alexa - play Newstalk FM, Dublin, Ireland on Tunein
Alexa - play Newstalk FM on Tunein
now...
Alexa - play Newstalk FM

Not sure if this is because Amazon is improving localised services, or the learning functionality of Alexa. I do occasionally go back into the app, and confirm/deny the 'Did Alexa do what you wanted?' cards.

Silverfluffs

Make sure you say "Alexa, good morning" today!

Orion

Zascar wrote: »

I've just tried both and still not working for me. I changed to a UK address also, no difference. Still always saying it cannot find any music in my Library.

Any other options?

This happened to me. My marketplace was set to US. Support sorted it out easily. They will call you so no charge.

Davy

Orion wrote: »

This happened to me. My marketplace was set to US. Support sorted it out easily. They will call you so no charge.

If you login to your amazon account Here you can link it to the amazon UK store yourself.

BenAndJerry

Hi Guys,

Has anyone tried using more than one dot/echo with Spotify? Spotify will only allow you play one track at a time, so switching on a track on a second dot/echo turns off the track playing on the first one.

Can you sign up to Spotify Family and assign a different account to each dot/echo from the six you get with Spotify Family? I have heard someone saying you also need to set up each dot/echo on a different amazon account which would be a complete pain.

Thanks

Orion

No - you set up Spotify on your account not on your device so you're stuck with the one active device. Tunein can play on multiple devices.

BenAndJerry

Orion wrote: »

No - you set up Spotify on your account not on your device so you're stuck with the one active device. Tunein can play on multiple devices.

Thanks Orion,

So basically the only way to achieve this is to setup each dot/echo on a different amazon account?

I just looked in to the Spotify settings and I actually see it says "listen to another Spotify account. To listen to another account ask Alexa to "Spotify Connect". Both devices must be on the same WI-FI network".

This might help some people but it doesn't really help me as I wanted to set up one of the accounts for my parents in their house. I'll give it a try and see what happens though.

Orion

if it's a different house then set up their echo on a different amazon account and get the spotify family account. The family accounts don't have to be on the same network - my sister uses one of mine and she lives in Roscommon.

duffer247

BenAndJerry wrote: »

Changing language from U.K. To US worked for me. I no longer need to mention spotify. See my settings attached.

I changed language to US and it worked not having to say Spotify each time - unfortunately Alexa's accent also changes

Zascar

Orion wrote: »

This happened to me. My marketplace was set to US. Support sorted it out easily. They will call you so no charge.

Thanks! Got it sorted. As you said my marketplace was set to US, I got on to the chat support and he changed it to UK. I can now get Alexa to play music without specifying Spotify. Also, I had a problem where I could not find certain skills in the store, and I could not get Sky News on my flash briefing. All sorted now

BenAndJerry

duffer247 wrote: »

I changed language to US and it worked not having to say Spotify each time - unfortunately Alexa's accent also changes

Aye, that's the downside!

fergalom

Have 2 dots and find the timers/alarms function really handy but...
If you set an alarm on one dot - it will not alert on the other when time is up!!

Anyone got a way around this?

seamus

Haven't tried it myself, but if you want simultaneous alerts, you may have to set it as a calendar reminder rather than a timer or alarm?

donegal.

when i initially set up my echo i used a uk address (in case an irish one would rock the boat with prime video)
but now i can't change it

i've gone to amazon>your account>digital content>manage your devices>settings>country settings
and changed to my actual address so now my country is "Ireland, Republic of"

next i went to alexa.amazon.co.uk>settings>echo>device location>edit.

but i can't change my address here .
I get this message "Could not set your address. Please ensure you have correctly entered a complete address."


What should i be doing?

garbeth

It won't take most Irish addresses as it's not officially launched in Ireland. It will take some addresses around the M50 in Dublin. It will also take o Connell street in dublin. Not used for much anyway. It will take all addresses in the traffic section. For weather in your area set up the big sky skill.

fionny

fergalom wrote: »

Have 2 dots and find the timers/alarms function really handy but...
If you set an alarm on one dot - it will not alert on the other when time is up!!

Anyone got a way around this?

I have an IFTTT rule that when a time goes off it sends a notification to my phone, that might help

Orion

garbeth wrote: »

It won't take most Irish addresses as it's not officially launched in Ireland.

No - it won't take most Irish addresses as it uses Bing which is appallingly bad for addressing in Ireland. I set mine to O'Connell Street. All I need it for is timezone so that's good enough. With the weather skill you can set your actual address using Google Maps.

mossym

Orion wrote: »

No - it won't take most Irish addresses as it uses Bing which is appallingly bad for addressing in Ireland.

exactly, i don't think anything is going to improve when it is fully released, it's bing maps is the issue

d31b0y

Are you sure about that? Bing maps was well able to find my address but I couldn't set it in the app.
i.e. it showed up in the search but wouldn't accept it as a valid address in the app.

It also shows up on the bing maps webpage http://bing.com/maps

mossym

d31b0y wrote: »

Are you sure about that? Bing maps was well able to find my address but I couldn't set it in the app.
i.e. it showed up in the search but wouldn't accept it as a valid address in the app.

It also shows up on the bing maps webpage http://bing.com/maps

fair point, mine shows up as well. i think it's down to whatever link they have to bing maps, it's definitely not finding irish addresses.


maybe its a license thing, amazon need to buy the irish license before the maps work. like a gps set of maps

mrcheez

There is an Alexa skill made to use the Google Maps API so I imagine all the issues we currently experience with Bing maps will be resolved this way eventually

https://github.com/Dhanush123/City-Driving

I'm trying to get her to play RTE Radio 1 and keep getting "I can't get the station RTE near you". Whole thing is rubbish in my opinion. Too many stupid options that you have to mess with a combination of to try and get it to play a radio station.

Orion

In fairness it's not optimised for Ireland as it's not supported here yet. It does play most stations fine but for RTE 1 you need to tell it "Play 88.5 rte radio 1 on tunein"

GH is the same for Radio 1 btw. I think it's because of the fada on the E.

degsie

Orion wrote: »

In fairness it's not optimised for Ireland as it's not supported here yet. It does play most stations fine but for RTE 1 you need to tell it "Play 88.5 rte radio 1 on tunein"

Oddly, I get 2FM when I say this

garbeth

Play 88.5 works for me with RTE radio

The others that work are these


Play 88.5 RTE radio one
Play RTE 2 FM
Play TodayFm
Play FM104
Play 98FM
Play 107.6
Play Fluffy Radio on TuneIn

You have to play around with the frequencies I've mentioned it a few posts back

Irish Gunner

I have been trying to get Echo to play 8radio.com on TuneIn. She then says back to me you want to play 8radio.com on TuneIn. I reply yes and then I get the Silent Treatment...
Was it something I said ?