So you only have one Amazon Echo, either from the last sales or from the holidays. Let's take a look at how to set it up and some useful things you can assign tasks to your Echo with..
What is Amazon Echo?
Briefly, Echo is a voice-controlled virtual assistant that enables you to control smart devices, check the weather, play music, get news updates and more.
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There are several different Echo models you can select from. The main echo is the $ 99 version which comes with a decent speaker for the price. There is also the cheapest $ 50 Echo Dot at the lower end (that comes with laptop-quality sound in a smaller package), and at the top end is the $ 150 Echo Plus, which has a built-in smarthome hub and slightly better speaker than the model of $ 99. You can also get Echos that have screens, As the Eco show and Echo Spot.
Despite this, before setting up the Echo and playing with it, let's take a quick tour of the physical device and its buttons. In this guide, we will configure the normal Echo model, but configuring any of them works practically the same.
In regards to physical manipulation, There are three things on the Echo you can mess with: microphone button (which enables and disables the listening function), the action button (that, when it is touched, summon Alexa without having to say anything) and the volume buttons. On the Echo Plus (and in the Echos of the previous generation) there is a volume ring around the edge, instead of volume buttons.
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At the same time of the buttons, plus there's an audio out port on all the latest Echo devices (next to the power port on the bottom) so you can connect a more powerful speaker to them.
With the brief overview of the physical side of things out of the way, Let's take a look at how to set up your Echo.
Setting up your echo
To help minimize Alexa's instructions at full volume, the first step (even before unpacking and plugging in the Echo) is to grab the Amazon Alexa app for your phone or tablet (iOS/Android). Once you have downloaded the application, wait to start it right now.
Connect your Amazon Echo. The indicator ring around the top will flash blue and then turn to a rotating orange color (as shown above). This indicates that it is ready to be configured. If you lose this window and start complaining (and the ring turns purple), press and hold the action button (the button opposite the mute button) for about five seconds until the ring turns orange again.
Once the Echo is fully powered up and in orange setup mode, take out your smartphone and open Wi-Fi settings. Like many smarthome products, the Echo needs you to connect directly to it throughout the setup procedure to set it up.
As shown above, select the Echo's Wi-Fi connection, which will be something like “Amazon-53N” or some other combination of numbers and letters, and connect to it.
After, you can launch the Alexa app to start the setup and you should see this screen:
Select the type of echo you are configuring. The application should jump directly to the configuration procedure, but if you don't, switch to tab “Devices” In the bottom right. If you personally purchased the Echo from your Amazon account, you should see something like “[Your Name]’S Echo” in the listing and you can choose that.
If you received an Echo as a gift or you don't see your device there, touch the button “+” at the top right to configure a new device and then touch “Add device” to confirm.
On the Settings screen, choose “Amazon Echo” and that will take you to the screen where you can select which device you are setting up.
Once you are at the point where you are connected to the Echo with the app running, the rest is quite simple. Enter your Amazon account login credentials, accept the Alexa user conditions (as an example, that you agree to have your voice sent to Amazon to be analyzed for commands and service improvements), and then select your Wi-Fi network from the list of networks that the Echo can detect.
Once you've connected your Echo to your home Wi-Fi network, you will be ready to start using it. Let's take a look at how to talk to Alexa and then how to personalize your Echo experience.
Invoking Alexa
The Echo is programmed to respond to a “trigger word”, What is it “Alexa” by default (but you can change the trigger word if necessary). Every time you say the word “Alexa”, you'll see the ring of light on top of the Echo glows blue. Next, you can follow up with a command or a query.
Despite this, there is a command we want you to know about and keep in mind: “Alexa, Stop”. At some time, you will ask Alexa to do something that generates a lot of chatter or noise and you will definitely want a way to calm things down. It's also the way to stop music from playing and how to stop alarms and timers when they go off.
Things you can do
Now that you know how to summon Alexa and stop any scandal it may unleash, Let's take a look at some of the fun things you can do with Alexa to get started..
Play music
Even though playing music through a speaker is the least futuristic use of the Echo., It is one of the most fun and you will probably find yourself using it quite often. By default, Your Amazon Echo is connected to your Amazon Prime account and gives you access to both the music you have purchased through Amazon and the vast library of free Prime music. You can also link your Spotify or Pandora account and use it instead, as well as playing music on multiple Echos at the same time. Just say something like:
Alexa, play [music genre]
Alexa, play [your playlist name]
Alexa, play [band]
Alexa, play [song] by [band]
Alexa, play [station] upon [streaming service]
Alexa, What does it sound?
You can issue commands like “Alexa, play christmas music” and Alexa will trigger a Christmas music playlist. If you have created personal playlists, you can also call those playlists by name, What “Alexa, play my Rainy Day playlist”. You can also play music through the band and the name of the song, What “Alexa, toca Rush” O “Alexa, touches Spirit of Radio by Rush ".
Make inquiries, get conversions and ask trivia
Right behind the music playing, the most popular thing in the office is asking Alexa questions. You can consult Alexa on a wide range of topics and she will give you a direct answer or, if the query is not part of your database, she (the same way as Siri) will give you the search results of what you asked. . Here are some helpful things you can ask Alexa:
Alexa, what's the weather like? (If you want the weather to be outside your zip code, just add “in [city name]”)
Alexa, What's new today?
Alexa, how much is it 295 x 5?
Alexa, what time is it? [city/state/country]?
Alexa, Wikipedia [topic] (you will get a brief summary and then a link to the full Wikipedia entry in the Alexa app)
Alexa, how is this written? [word]?
Alexa, How many cups are in a gallon? (This and other simple conversion questions are easy for Alexa)
Alexa, Who won the super bowl of 1979? (this and other trivia questions with a clear answer usually work quite well)
Make shopping and to-do lists
Music playback is excellent (and how we notice, the audio quality is very high) and asking Alexa trivia questions is fun, but if you are interested in productivity, list functionality is helpful. You can use 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.
Although it is very convenient for Alexa to read the lists to you, do not worry, since the lists are also transcribed for you in the Alexa app. Every item you add is stored in the app, as seen above, so you can refer to it while running errands.
Customizing your eco experience
Once you have some voice commands in the bank, you might want to move on to personalizing your Echo experience by adjusting a few settings and downloading the Alexa skills.
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You can customize the settings on your Echo by opening the Alexa app and navigating to the main menu., selecting “Setting” and then moving down to the section “Accounts”. There you will find options for a range of things like music (where you can link your Echo to your Spotify or Pandora account), “Flash Briefing” (where you can change the source of your daily news reports), “Sports Update” (where you can change the team that follows in MLB, NBA y NFL) and other settings, as the route for your traffic updates and linking your calendar.
There are also Alexa Skills, that add more functionality to your Echo thanks to third-party developers. You can enter the skill store by heading to the main menu and tapping “Abilities”. From there, can download all kinds of different skills, from ambient rain sounds to skills that enable you to control smart devices.
