Amazon Echo: The unspoken how-to
ALEXA IS THE AI POWERING THE AMAZON ECHO LINE OF SPEAKERS, AND GETTING STARTED WITH IT IS EXTRAORDINARILY SIMPLE.
WHETHER YOU HAVE the Amazon Echo, the diminutive but equally powerful Echo Dot, or the premium Echo Plus, all of Amazon’s smartspeakers feature Alexa, an intelligent voice assistant. Your Echo will listen for any commands that you give it after it hears its wake word ‘Alexa’. By saying “Alexa” within its earshot, a blue light will appear, pointing in your general direction. This shows that your Amazon Echo has heard the wake word and is now listening out for your instructions. A seven-piece microphone array is built into each Echo, which helps it hear your voice from almost any direction. You don’t have to shout either, just say “Alexa”, then pause for a second to see if your Echo has heard you. Ambient noise can confuse the Echo, so turn down any music or TV shows that are blaring out.
It’s easy to change the wake word with the Amazon Alexa app. Tap on the Menu icon (found in the top left-hand corner of the app), then select Settings. Pick your device then scroll down and select ‘Wake Word’. Click the down arrow, then choose from the list of available wake words, and tap Save.
This guide will get you started with your Echo, and we’ve also listed a number of commands to help you with everything from your daily commute, organising your calendar, to playing music. There’s a lot more advanced stuff that you can do with Alexa, so check out our big guide on page 74.
MAKE LISTS
Create to-do lists, task lists, goal lists — you name it, Alexa can save it for you. As well as to-do lists, you can add items to your shopping list. You can access your Alexa Shopping and To-do lists in the Alexa app and also the Alexa Shopping List on the Amazon website, the Amazon app and with your voice on Amazon Echo. Each of your lists can have up to 100 items and each item can be up to 256 characters long — so it’s not really something you can make notes with. On the Alexa app, select Lists in the menu. You can then choose either the Shopping or To-do tab.As well as adding an item using voice commands, you can add an item in the app — type the item in the text field, then tap or click the Add icon (+). If you’ve completed an item, just tap the checkbox next to it. When the time comes to delete an item, select the down arrow on the right-hand side of an item and then tap ‘Delete Item’. You can only delete items or clear off your list using the app.
LET ALEXA READ YOUR CALENDAR
You can link your personal or work calendars to Alexa if you use calendars provided by Apple, Google or Microsoft — both Microsoft Office 365 and Outlook.com. You can then ask Alexa to read out your events and add new things. You’ll need to specify the calendars you use within Alexa, and more than one person in your household can link their calendars. Launch Alexa, then open the menu and select Settings. Go to Calendar before selecting the Link option, where you’ll be asked to enter the settings for your calendar. After you link your account, you may be prompted to select which of the
IF YOU HAVE AN AMAZON PRIME ACCOUNT, YOU WILL HAVE A PRIME MUSIC ACCOUNT INCLUDED, WHICH GIVES YOU ACCESS TO TWO MILLION SONGS AD-FREE. YOU CAN ALSO SUBSCRIBE TO AMAZON MUSIC UNLIMITED.
calendars from that account Alexa can access. To link your iCloud calendar to Alexa, you’ll need to use Apple’s two-factor authentication login process. This makes your iCloud account more secure, the compromise being that as well as your password, you will also need to enter a verification code each time you want to access and manage your account information on your devices. Also, you can link only one Microsoft calendar account, so it can be either connected to Outlook.com or Office 365, but not both.
PLAY MUSIC AND MEDIA
You can listen to music on your Amazon Echo by saying ‘Alexa, play’ followed by the song name, band name or genre. For example, you could say ‘Alexa, play summer music’, or ‘Alexa, play The Beatles’. By default, your Amazon Echo uses Amazon Music as the source for playing tunes. If you have an Amazon Prime account, you will have a Prime Music account included, which gives you access to two million songs ad-free. You can also subscribe to Amazon Music Unlimited, which gives you access to 40 million songs. There are other music streaming services that can connect to your Echo. For example, TuneIn is used to play radio stations. Just say ‘Alexa, play Double J ’ for example, and your Amazon Echo will use TuneIn to play the radio station.
The incredibly popular Spotify music streaming service is also supported, though only for Premium accounts. Once you have a Spotify premium account, you need to connect it to your Amazon Echo. Open the Alexa app, click the Menu icon in the top left-hand corner. Tap on the ‘Music & Books’ option to see which services are connected. Back on the main menu, tap Settings > Music & Media to add a new service. Tap ‘Link account to Alexa’ next to the service to add, then sign in. You can now say ‘Alexa, play [band]’ and your Amazon Echo will do so from Spotify.
You can also play mp3 files from your own collection (like iTunes), though you’ll have to upload your music to the Amazon My Music service. Start by going to music.amazon.com.
au/home and on the left-hand side of the site you’ll see a menu. Towards the bottom of the menu is a link that says ‘Upload your music to your cloud library’. Click on this, then click on ‘Install Amazon Music for PC’. Once it’s installed, the Amazon Music software will launch. Select the files you want to upload on your PC, and drag-and-drop them into the Amazon Music program. You can upload up to 250 songs to My Music for free. With an Amazon Music subscription, you’re able to upload up to 250,000 songs.
The other option is to connect your phone via Bluetooth: simply give the command ‘Alexa, pair’. This will set your Echo to Bluetooth pairing mode. Now, open up the Bluetooth settings on your smartphone or tablet and select your Amazon Echo from the list. When you play media on your smartphone, it will come out of the Echo’s speakers. To stop this, say ‘Alexa, disconnect’. If you’d like to reconnect, just say ‘Alexa, connect’.
GET THE WEATHER AND TRAFFIC REPORT
In order to get your customised traffic, news and weather updates, plus many more services, you’ll need to set up your address on the Amazon Echo. In the Alexa app, go to Settings and then select your device. Under ‘Device location’, select Edit. Now you can either choose your address from a dropdown list, or type in your complete address. Once that’s done, hit Save.
By adding your address to the Echo, all you need to do is say ‘Alexa, what’s the weather?’ and you’ll get an update about the weather where you are. It will also tell you if there is a chance of rain, and the high and low temperatures expected.
At the moment you have to do a little work to set up your traffic alerts on the Amazon Echo. You will need to set up your starting point and destination before your Echo can tell you about the traffic, so have a think about what the most regular trip you make is.
To set your route, open up the Amazon Alexa app on your smartphone or tablet. Once the app is open, tap on the Menu icon in the top left-hand corner of the app screen, then select Settings. Scroll down the menu and tap on Traffic. Now you’ll see your blank route. By default the beginning of your route will be the location you entered when you set up your Amazon Echo. Tap on ‘Add Address’, then enter where you are going to, for example your work address. With the starting and ending point of your route set up, you can now ask your Amazon Echo what the traffic is like on that route.