How To Set Up A Amazon Echo

Then you just got an Amazon Repeat, either from the recent sales or the holidays. Allow's have a wait at how to ready information technology upwardly and some useful things you can task your Echo with.

What Is the Amazon Echo?

Simply put, the Echo is a voice-controlled virtual assistant that lets you lot control smarthome devices, bank check the atmospheric condition, play music, become news updates, and more than.

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There are a scattering of dissimilar Repeat models that you can choose from. The main Echo is the $99 version which comes with a decent speaker for the price. There's also the cheaper $50 Repeat Dot on the lower stop (which comes with laptop-quality sound in a smaller parcel), and on the college finish is the $150 Echo Plus, which has a built-in smarthome hub and a slightly better speaker than the $99 model. You can likewise become Echos that have screens on them, like the Echo Testify and Echo Spot.

Earlier we set the Echo upwardly and play around with it, though, let's take a quick tour of the physical device and its buttons. In this guide, nosotros'll exist setting up the regular Echo model, but setting any of them works pretty much the same.

As far as physical manipulation goes, at that place are three things on the Repeat yous tin can mess with: the microphone push button (which toggles the listening feature on and off), the activeness push button (which, when tapped, summons Alexa without having to say anything), and the volume buttons. On the Echo Plus (and the previous-generation Echos) there's a volume ring effectually the border, rather than volume buttons.

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Other than the buttons, there's also an audio-out port on all the latest Repeat devices (next to the power port at the bottom) and then that you can plug a more-powerful speaker into them.

With the cursory overview of the concrete side of things out of the way, let'south have a expect at how to set your Echo.

Setting Upwardly Your Echo

To help minimize Alexa belting out instructions at yous, the kickoff stride (before you even unpack and plug the Echo in) is to grab the Amazon Alexa app for your phone or tablet (iOS/Android). In one case y'all have the app downloaded, hold off on launching it right at present.

Plug in your Amazon Echo. The indicator ring around the top volition wink blue so switch to a rotating orangish color (every bit shown higher up). This indicates it's ready to be configured. If you miss this window and it starts complaining (and the ring turns royal), hold down the action button (the push button opposite the mute button) for about five seconds until the band turns orangish again.

Once the Echo is fully powered up and in the orange configuration mode, pull out your smartphone and open the Wi-Fi settings. Like many smarthome products, the Echo requires you to connect directly to it during the configuration process in order to fix it up.

Equally shown above, select the Echo's Wi-Fi connection, which will exist something similar "Amazon-53N" or some other number and letter philharmonic, and connect to it.

So, y'all can launch the Alexa app to begin the setup and you should run into this screen:

Select which blazon of Echo y'all're setting upward. The app should jump correct into the configuration process, but if it doesn't, switch to the "Devices" tab on the lesser correct. If you personally purchased the Echo on your Amazon business relationship, then you should run across something like "[Your Proper noun]'s Echo" on the list and yous tin select that.

If you got an Echo as a gift or don't see your device at that place, tap the "+" push at the tiptop right to set upward a new device and and so tap "Add Device" to confirm.

On the Setup screen, cull "Amazon Echo" and that volition have you lot to the screen where you can cull which device you're setting upwards.

In one case you're at the point where you're connected to the Echo with the app upwards and running, the rest is pretty piece of cake. Type in your Amazon account login credentials, hold to the Alexa user weather condition (e.g. that you're OK with your voice being sent to Amazon to exist analyzed for commands and service improvements), and and so select your Wi-Fi network from the list of networks the Echo can discover.

Once you've connected your Echo to your dwelling house's Wi-Fi network, you're gear up to outset using it. Let's take a look at how to talk to Alexa and so how to customize your Echo experience.

Summoning Alexa

The Repeat is programmed to reply to a "wake word", which is "Alexa" by default (only y'all can change the wake word if need be). Someday you lot say the word "Alexa", you'll encounter the light ring atop the Echo light up blue. You can then follow that up with a command or inquiry.

There is one command we want you to know and have downwardly pat, though: "Alexa, stop." At some bespeak you're going to ask Alexa to do something that leads to a lot of churr or racket and y'all'll definitely want a way to quiet things downwardly. It's also how you go music to end playing, and how to terminate alarms and timers when they go off.

Things Y'all Tin can Do

Now that you lot know how to summon Alexa and put the brakes on any racket she might unleash, let'southward take a look at some of the fun things y'all tin do with Alexa to go yous started.

Play Music

Although playing music through a speaker is the least futuristic employ of the Echo unit, it is ane of the near fun, and you'll likely find yourself using it fairly often. By default, your Amazon Echo is tapped into your Amazon Prime account and gives yous access to both the music you've purchased through Amazon as well as the vast library of free Prime music. You can besides link your Spotify or Pandora account and use that instead, as well as play music on multiple Echos at once. Only say something like:

Alexa, play [music genre]

Alexa, play [your playlist name]

Alexa, play [ring]

Alexa, play [song] past [band]

Alexa, play [station] on [streaming service]

Alexa, what's playing?

You can issue commands like "Alexa, play Christmas music" and Alexa will spin upwardly a Christmas music playlist. If yous've created personal playlists, you can likewise call up those playlists by name similar "Alexa, play my Rainy Twenty-four hours playlist". You can besides play music via band and song name like "Alexa, play Rush" or "Alexa, playSpirit of the Radio by Rush".

Brand Inquiries, Go Conversions, and Ask Trivia

Just backside music playback, the nigh popular thing around the office is asking Alexa questions. You can query Alexa on a broad range of topics and she'll either give you a direct response or, if the inquiry is not part of her database, she'll (just similar Siri) give you the search results for what yous asked about. Hither are a few of the useful things you can enquire Alexa:

Alexa, what'southward the weather like? (If yous want weather outside your zilch lawmaking, merely add "in [city name]")

Alexa, what'south the news today?

Alexa, what is 295 x five?

Alexa, what time is it in [metropolis/state/land]?

Alexa, Wikipedia [topic] (y'all'll get a brief summary and then a link to the full Wikipedia entry in and then Alexa app)

Alexa, how do you spell [discussion]?

Alexa, how many cups are in a gallon? (This, and other straight forrad conversion questions, are like shooting fish in a barrel for Alexa)

Alexa, who won the 1979 Super Bowl? (this, and other trivia questions with a clear answer, usually work quite well)

Brand Shopping and To-Do Lists

Music playback is nifty (and as nosotros noted the sound quality is very high) and asking Alexa trivia questions is fun, merely if you're productivity-minded, the listing functionality is handy. Yous can utilize the following simple commands to create lists and add things to those lists:

Alexa, create a new list.

Alexa, add [item] to my shopping list.

Alexa, read my shopping list.

While it'southward very convenient to take Alexa read the lists to y'all, don't worry, every bit the lists are as well transcribed for you in the Alexa app. Every item you add is stored in the app, as seen above, and so you tin reference it while you're running errands.

Customizing Your Echo Experience

Once you've got some phonation commands in the bank, yous may want to motility onto customizing your Echo experience past adjusting some settings and downloading Alexa skills.

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Yous can customize settings on your Echo by opening the Alexa app and navigating to the main menu, selecting "Settings", and and so scrolling downwards to the "Accounts" section. There you'll notice options for a variety of things similar music (where you tin link your Echo to your Spotify or Pandora account), "Wink Briefing" (where you tin change the source for your daily news briefings), "Sports Update" (where you can change which squad you follow in the MLB, NBA, and NFL), and other settings, similar the route for your traffic updates and linking your calendar.

There are besides Alexa Skills, which add together more than functionality to your Echo thanks to third-party developers. You lot tin access the skills store by heading to the principal menu and tapping on "Skills". From there, yous tin download all sorts off different skills, from ambient pelting sounds all the way to skills that allow you control smarthome devices.