It helps if the people you're linking to are both either Prime members or share Prime membership. What you'll need to do is go to Settings, scroll down the page, and set up your Household. You can link your family Prime accounts to your Echo by pointing your browser at.
How to link your family Prime accounts into the Amazon Echo
That, in turn, means it needs updating (hey, even my light bulbs need updates these days).Īmazon tells me that Alexa looks for updates every night, but if you want to force an update (for example, my unit came unable to control home devices), just hit that same mute button we discussed earlier, let it sit that way for at least 30 minutes, and you'll have your update.ħ. Like all modern digital devices, the Echo has a CPU at its core, and that means it's running software.
How to force a software update for the Amazon Echo For example, one user could define "my lights" as one set of lamp devices while another user could define the same "my lights" group to turn on a different set of lights.Ħ. Here's a quick tip within a tip: can't remember to call them "desk lights" instead of "desk lamps"? Set up two groups, one with each name, controlling the same devices. But if you want to set up profile groups (for example "Desk lights" turns on and off three lamps), you'll have to set up the groups and group names for each profile. How to control different devices (or use different device names) based on one Amazon Echo profileĮach profile will recognize devices connected to the Amazon Echo. While we're talking about profiles and devices, it's important to note that you can use different accounts with your Alexa. Hopefully this will change sometime soon. Note: Alexa will also control Spotify, but as of at least the time of writing, if you have a family Spotify account, Alexa will only let you access the music of the primary account holder. To find out what profile you're currently using, say "Alexa, which profile am I using." To switch profiles, say either "Alexa, switch profile" and it will move to the next profile or "Alexa, switch to David's profile" and it will switch to the profile you just named. So if we want to listen to her collection, or otherwise access her settings, we need to switch profiles. Our entire digitized CD collection is in my wife's account. I don't have any music in my Amazon account. How to control the Amazon Echo from a different Amazon account You might also need to login to any accompanying service to connect your account to your Alexa.Ĥ. To add this, or any of the other skills, just open the Skills section of your Alexa app, search for the capability you want, and enable it. The way you do this is connect a device from Automatic that reads your car's internal data to your Alexa through a "skill," Amazon's name for what are essentially plug-ins for Alexa.
Today, for example, I learned that you can ask Alexa how much gas you have left in your car (and it will tell you). As a result, your Alexa is capable of undertaking thousands of new and interesting tasks. Unlike Siri, which remains relatively locked to third party solutions, Amazon opened up the Alexa API to developers worldwide. How to give your Alexa thousands of new capabilities The secret to setting up all these devices is using the Smart Home section in the Alexa app and binding it to an ever-growing list of devices that your Alexa can control, which now include lighting and fans, thermostats, locks, and a lot more.ģ. We also control our entertainment center using the Logitech Harmony Hub. But we now control almost all the lights in our home through a combination of Philips Hue bulbs and Belkin Wemo Light Switches. My wife and I had just a few Hue lights connected. When we first published this article, device control from Alexa was rather limited.
How to stop the Amazon Echo from listening for its wake wordĭespite some wacky articles humorously linking Amazon's always-listening Echo to the NSA or any other 3-letter government agencies, the device doesn't respond until it hears its wake word (in most cases, that's "Alexa"). In this update to the original 2015 article, I'll help you understand some of my favorite tricks.ġ. Over the course of our relationship with the Alexa twins, we've found some interesting tips and tricks that you might find useful as well. Even though they can be dumb as rocks sometimes, there are a few things (turning on and off the lighting, basic math, weather) that have provided a level of incremental convenience we've become totally accustomed to. Since then, we adopted two Alexas, one who lives in our main room and one in our bedroom. This article was originally published way back in 2015.
Almost two years ago, the Amazon Echo found its way into our home and has become a cherished member of our family.