Echo stuff

A. Connect new out-of-box Echo in situ

1. Open the Amazon Alexa app on your phone. Make sure it is signed into the Amazon account for the end user of the Echo device. (if necessary, tap the hamburger menu icon, then Settings, then scroll down to Sign out. Sign in again with the appropriate Amazon username and password.
2. Make sure Bluetooth is enabled on your phone.
3. Unbox theEcho device and turn it on. It should display an orange light while it is using Bluetooth to look for a phone with an Alexa app open.
4. Goto Add device in the Alexa app menu.
5. Select type of device .. see searching …
6. If Echo has stopped displaying orange light and no device has bene found then press the Action button the Echo device for 10 secs to restore searching status.
7. Select local WiFi network to make connection.
8. Type in pass-phrase for local Wifi network.
9. That’s it! You can also consider changing the device name in Device Settings, perhaps to reflect its location.

B. Change WiFi for an already-registered Echo device

This process assumes the device is already registered to the appropriate Amazon account but just has an inappropriate WiFi connection.

1. Goto Settings/ Device Settings. Select the appropriate device.
2. Edit the Name of the device if appropriate.
3. Scroll down options to WiFi network/ Change
4. Proceed as steps 7 -10 in A above.

C. De-register an Echo device

This process dissociates the Echo device from its associated Amazon account and leaves it free to be associated with a new account as described in A above.

1. Goto Devices. select the appropriate device.
2. Scroll down options to DEREGISTER. Select.

Music

You get bloody little ‘free’ music without a subscription to Amazon Prime or Spotify or similar.

Calling another person

This refers to making an Alex call to a person in the calling person’s Alexa Contacts list (hamburger-menu-icon/Contacts)

Say ‘Alexa, call John’s mobile’ or ‘Alexa, call John’s Alexa’ [to call his Alexa app], or ‘Alexa, call John’ [defaults to last used device for that person]

NB: ‘John’ must have been entered as a nickname in the calling person’s Contacts list

Drop-in

DROP IN is a sort of intercom feature whereby you can communicate with another Echo even 300 miles away. by saying something like ‘Alexa, drop in on mam.’ The receiving Echo Dot will play a note and the ring around its top rim will pulse green while DROP IN is active. If you want temporarily to block Drop in, you should say ‘Alexa, do not disturb‘. The Drop In feature is disabled initially in a new device. It can enabled for an Echo device in the Alexa app that ‘owns’ that device). To allow Drop In to be extended outside you own home you have to enable it in your own Alexa profile and for the individual contacts you want to Drop In on.

Alexa ‘ROUTINE’

A ROUTINE is a sort of list of commands that can be triggered by a time of day (no user greeting needed) or by a custom greeting (eg “Alexa, good morning!”) and it will perform a list of actions that you have set up using the Alexa app, for example, it could deliver calendar information for the day, weather, etc, and you can add CUSTOM TEXT (which you could change each day from the Alexa app, if you were organised enough). You can arrange for a routine to send a notification to your phone every time the Routine is activated. You could also use IFTT (maybe to add a log to a Google spreadsheet whenever the Routine is run.

Alexa SKILLS

Skills are little (or not so little) ‘programs’ that enable Alexa and associated Echo devices to do clever things when certain phrases are spoken to them. These skills live in the cloud. Countless generally available skills are already around, written either by Amazon or by others, but you can also write your own skills if you’re so inclined and have the necessary aptitude. They can be personally available only on your devices. If you create a new local skill with the same trigger words as a general one, then normally the local one takes priority.

IFTT

IFTTT (see also above) stands for “IF This Then That” and is a free system that couples apps together, so that the output from one app is automatically piped to the input of another app via an IFTTT app. There are thousands of IFTTT apps that link app X to app Y. You could have something like .. IF Alexa runs this routine that you’re composing THEN an IFTTT app is triggered that writes a new row containing the time and date to a certain Google spreadsheet. It’s not trivial. You need an IFTTT account and you have to link that account to your Alexa app, then IFTTT option appears when you’re writing routines in Alexa.

Echo Show Devices

These variations of Echo include a screen, so that you can transmit a picture and well as sound. The screens are commonly smallish at 5-inch or 8-inch diagonal, but there is also a more expensive 10-inch model. They start at about £70 and go up to £200. As well as doing the usual Echo things, you can use them to make and receive video calls to or from other screen-Echo devices or an Alexa app or Skype. When not making a call, the screen can display a clock/calendar or temperature or song lyrics while playing music from Amazon Prime or Spotify, and so on. It includes a simple mechanical slide shutter that disables both the camera and the microphone.

Echo Connect

This is a little black box that turns your landline into an Echo-driven speaker-phone. They used to cost about £25, but haven’t been available since February 2020. I’m not clear whether their lack of availability is a COVID-19 problem or a technology problem. Good for mam who is slow getting to the phone: she could just call out ‘Alexa, answer!’ But it’s probably been outpaced by Alexa Drop In.