Amazon Alexa and Echo FAQ

Irish Gunner · 06-10-2018 2:55pm

Would this work using Virgin media home phone network

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B06ZZNWTDC/ref=cm_sw_r_em_apa_QX6TBbC7GW8BT

scamalert · 06-10-2018 6:31pm

Irish Gunner wrote: »

Would this work using Virgin media home phone network

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B06ZZNWTDC/ref=cm_sw_r_em_apa_QX6TBbC7GW8BT

it probably would says needs active phone line, with that said i dont like amazons marketing technique with apps like viber whatsapp skype etc, theres no reason or point in this age to really use phone line anymore, i bet theres easily skill that could be developed and integrated, instead they push you to get a box for 30 quid.

ILikeBoats · 08-10-2018 8:35am

My first gen Echo has stopped playing music. She'll answer questions and do her normal things but ask her to play anything on Spotify or Tunein and she's having none of it.

When asked to play Tunein, she says xxx cannot be played on Tunein live. I have 2 other echos in the house and they play the stations fine so I know they are working and it's not a tunein issue.

When asked to play Spotify, she says xxx is now playing on Spotify or whatever the standard response is. Then nothing happens, just silence. The app says Connecting....and then nothing.

I've reset the Echo. Unplugged Echo. I've had a bit of luck by playing tunein through the Alexa app, it's worked once or twice but that's it. I've unlinked Spotify and reconnected. Can't think of anything else? It's 2 years old so maybe just dying?

clintondaly · 08-10-2018 11:30am

ILikeBoats wrote: »

My first gen Echo has stopped playing music. She'll answer questions and do her normal things but ask her to play anything on Spotify or Tunein and she's having none of it.

When asked to play Tunein, she says xxx cannot be played on Tunein live. I have 2 other echos in the house and they play the stations fine so I know they are working and it's not a tunein issue.

When asked to play Spotify, she says xxx is now playing on Spotify or whatever the standard response is. Then nothing happens, just silence. The app says Connecting....and then nothing.

I've reset the Echo. Unplugged Echo. I've had a bit of luck by playing tunein through the Alexa app, it's worked once or twice but that's it. I've unlinked Spotify and reconnected. Can't think of anything else? It's 2 years old so maybe just dying?

Have you set them up as the default players again within the app settings ?

OldRio · 09-10-2018 6:54pm

Big improvement in the App. Much easy to navigate around your smart devices.

ILikeBoats · 09-10-2018 8:16pm

clintondaly wrote: »

Have you set them up as the default players again within the app settings ?

I actually unplugged it overnight. Tried it again in the morning and everything works as normal.
Go figure!

dball · 10-10-2018 3:31pm

Have an echo dot and all i get is "Spotify is not supported on this device"

Help

deadl0ck · 10-10-2018 3:38pm

dball wrote: »

Have an echo dot and all i get is "Spotify is not supported on this device"

Help

Have you spotify premium ? You need premium

If you have, you need to configure it on the Alexa app on your phone

dball · 10-10-2018 3:40pm

I do and i have, Still getting the same response.

Its even linked as i have the option to Unlink the spotify account from Alexa

& its my default music in settings

gar · 10-10-2018 4:06pm

Logged in on the echo as someone else?
Happened me before. Was logged into my wife’s account but Spotify was linked to my account

dball · 10-10-2018 5:25pm

logged is as me, Im the only one with both accounts in this house.
so thats not it.

Im lost

clintondaly · 11-10-2018 6:17pm

dball wrote: »

logged is as me, Im the only one with both accounts in this house.
so thats not it.

Im lost

Plug the unit out and plug it back in and see

tweek84 · 11-10-2018 8:24pm

clintondaly wrote: »

Plug the unit out and plug it back in and see

Yeah try the IT solution 'RRR' Reset Reboot and Relax

:D

degsie · 11-10-2018 10:06pm

clintondaly wrote: »

Plug the unit out and plug it back in and see

Soarer · 12-10-2018 3:28pm

New to all this lads.

Have decided (I think) that Alexa is gonna be the centre point of my home automation journey.
Following on from that, I'm looking at getting a few Dots for around the house, and an Echo as the main unit in the kitchen.
The gen.3 dots are a no-brainer when compared to the gen.2 version.
But what's the story with the Echo? There's a £50 difference between the Echo and the Echo Plus. Worth it?

Soarer · 12-10-2018 3:28pm

New to all this lads.

Have decided (I think) that Alexa is gonna be the centre point of my home automation journey.
Following on from that, I'm looking at getting a few Dots for around the house, and an Echo as the main unit in the kitchen.
The gen.3 dots are a no-brainer when compared to the gen.2 version.
But what's the story with the Echo? There's a £50 difference between the Echo and the Echo Plus. Worth it?

jmBuildExt · 12-10-2018 3:58pm

Main difference is that the plus has a zigbee (a wireless technology/standard, akin to bluetooth, that alot of smart light companies use) hub built in. That means if you are using e.g. philips hue lights, you don't need to have the philips hue hub - the plus already provides that function.
It may also have slightly better audio...

But.... I've personally had an echo for a while now, mainly using it for ikea lights and playing music on spotify.
The voice interface to spotify isn't always adequate enough for e.g. queing songs, searches etc - and I find myself having to go into my spotify account on my phone and control it from there. And... if someone else is in charge of the music at a party or whatever, i have to give them my phone. Solution to this is the echo show. Im getting one off santy!

Buttros · 12-10-2018 4:02pm

If i was to start over id get the plus. With the plus you can buy the bulbs for hue etc without the Hub. Same goes for many other devices.

Hive and Hue been the two i use. You save on space more than anything. The corner of my living room is a mess with wires and the hue and hive hubs add to this. Need to be plugged into the router and of course two more sockets in use in an already busy corner.

Also i think the plus comes with a free hue bulb which arent cheap and has slighty better speakers... never heard it so cant comment on the difference.

Soarer · 12-10-2018 4:38pm

Great explanations, thanks.

Had read about the Plus having Zigbee, but didn't know what it was!

Good to know that it allows integration without extra hubs.

Will probably splash out on the Plus so. Hung for a sheep as a lamb!

Soarer · 18-10-2018 1:30pm

Alright guys and gals.

Got my 2no. Dots set up yesterday. Seems to be running ok at the minute.
Couple of questions.
Is it possible to...
Not have Alexa answer "OK" when you tell it to turn off a lamp or whatever?
Keep it "Live" for a few seconds after your first command, so you don't have to repeatedly ask "Alexa" everytime?
Ask Alexa to boost the hot water using Nest? I know it can turn on/off the heating...what about the water?

degsie · 18-10-2018 1:33pm

Soarer wrote: »

Alright guys and gals.

Got my 2no. Dots set up yesterday. Seems to be running ok at the minute.
Couple of questions.
Is it possible to...
Not have Alexa answer "OK" when you tell it to turn off a lamp or whatever?
Keep it "Live" for a few seconds after your first command, so you don't have to repeatedly ask "Alexa" everytime?
Ask Alexa to boost the hot water using Nest? I know it can turn on/off the heating...what about the water?

https://www.cnet.com/news/amazon-alexas-brief-mode-stops-the-voice-assistant-from-saying-ok/

d31b0y · 18-10-2018 2:07pm

degsie wrote: »

https://www.cnet.com/news/amazon-alexas-brief-mode-stops-the-voice-assistant-from-saying-ok/

Is this American only for now? When I go to that setting, I get

Could not retrieve your Experimental settings.

Please try again later.

jmBuildExt · 18-10-2018 2:21pm

About 3 weeks ago when i was turning off a light, Alexa notified me that the "brief" option existed, and would i like to try it.
I said yes, and ever since ive just been geeting a brief tone instead of the big OK.

She did say what to do if i wanted to change it back, but i cant remember what she said exactly.

Soarer · 18-10-2018 2:30pm

degsie wrote: »

https://www.cnet.com/news/amazon-alexas-brief-mode-stops-the-voice-assistant-from-saying-ok/

Good stuff degsie. Pretty much exactly what I was asking.

jmBuildExt wrote: »

About 3 weeks ago when i was turning off a light, Alexa notified me that the "brief" option existed, and would i like to try it.
I said yes, and ever since ive just been geeting a brief tone instead of the big OK.

She did say what to do if i wanted to change it back, but i cant remember what she said exactly.

There's an option in the app under Settings>Alexa Voice Responses, where you can turn on "brief mode". Didn't know what it was, so left well enough alone.

Now that I know, I'll be turning it on.

d31b0y · 18-10-2018 2:31pm

Allowed me in on the web app;
https://alexa.amazon.co.uk/spa/index.html#settings/voice-responses

No follow up option though.

Mr.Crinklewood · 20-10-2018 3:41pm

"Whisper mode" arrived for me this week.

https://www.engadget.com/2018/10/18/amazon-alexa-whisper-mode-rolls-out-today/

Really handy for nighttime chats

mrcheez · 22-10-2018 4:52pm

For anyone that has noticed that Alexa now starts auto-shuffling Spotify when you ask to play an artist... apparently that was a "clever idea" by Spotify themselves.

Lots of people angry about this rightfully so: https://community.spotify.com/t5/Idea-Submissions/Alexa-Other-Stop-auto-shuffling-songs-when-you-request-an-artist/idi-p/4574864

Hopefully they change it back... at the moment I have to do the following:

"Alexa play [artist name]"
"Alexa shuffle mode off"

I *think* that resets it to the default setting of playing most popular tunes first, but not certain.

At the moment we just get shuffle mode playing a ton of b-sides and live recordings, etc.

tweek84 · 22-10-2018 5:09pm

@mrcheez My kids have noticed a change with spotify too, she is not happy about it (2 year old girl) before when you would ask spotify to play a song it would play the song to a point then stop then you ask it to play the song it continues from where it stopped but now it just keeps playing the same part of the song. I guess i will have to stop being tight and pay for spotify instead of using the freebie LOL

mrcheez · 22-10-2018 5:12pm

tweek84 wrote: »

@mrcheez My kids have noticed a change with spotify too, she is not happy about it (2 year old girl) before when you would ask spotify to play a song it would play the song to a point then stop then you ask it to play the song it continues from where it stopped but now it just keeps playing the same part of the song. I guess i will have to stop being tight and pay for spotify instead of using the freebie LOL

Maybe wait to see if they fix this first before paying for Premium.

I've just renewed for another year recently, but seriously thinking I should have just gone for Deezer.

What a stupid "feature". When you request to play an artist, you expect to at least get the most popular top 10 songs ... not some freaking dodgy song you never heard of at a live recording.

TomPetty · 23-10-2018 4:24pm

Hi Folks - Quick specific question about Amazon Echo and Tunein - I'm just about to order on Amazon, for the sole reason to have a radio which I can operate hands free for disabled person. The person requires to switch between Rte Radio 1 and News talk.
My question is - I have noticed recently on a laptop or on my Tunein phone App for example that when I change station, I have to listen to this really long annoying ad .. Do you know if this will be the case when I buy the Amazon echo also ? If it is, then its a show stopper !!
:-(
Thanks a million folks for any info you can give me on this.

Regards,
Tom.

Amazon Alexa and Echo FAQ

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