Amazon Alexa and Echo FAQ

iamtony

Lord TSC wrote: »

Got it working.

The option wasn't working on my iPad (wasn't even showing up) but the second I connected to the app via my iphone, it was there. Awesome

There's no charges for the calls and such in house, right? It says you can connect with other people's Alexas outside the house too, can you? I presume then it charges for the phone call?

I don't think you can make actual phone calls in Ireland, you can call other people in your contacts with echos or the alexa app installed on there phone and that's all free.

iamtony

scamalert wrote: »

works fine here in Ireland.

only thing is you need to install alexa app on one of the phones ios/android then you get this person icon if remember correctly then you just enable intercom/drop in, thou limited mine only to be used in house devices only, since think it allows to drop in on other contacts who have alexa as well but didnt try that one,nor would like someone trying to drop in :].

once thats done go into your alexa devices and name them properly like bedroom etc or just names to make life easier, once all that done and you know names you just say alexa drop in on x and its turns green and other person has to answer, similar sound to alarm.also theres some similar way to setup leaving recorded messages ,since when initially tried it got dot ring blinking green and took a while to ti figure why it was doing that until found that needed to say alexa read my messages and there was short record left prob from trying drop in function from the beginning.

its handy function to speak to someone upstairs without shouting :]

you don't have to answer with the drop in command if you allow drop in on that device. It's only when you say call the bedroom it will require an answer. In my experience drop in is much better. When my daughter is going to bed in the attic She drops in on the sitting room after her routine to get me to come up to kiss her goodnight.
Also great when the teenager is being loud. Instead of shouting up I just drop in on his room and tell him to shut up without disturbing my beer time:)

scamalert

iamtony wrote: »

you don't have to answer with the drop in command if you allow drop in on that device. It's only when you say call the bedroom it will require an answer. In my experience drop in is much better. When my daughter is going to bed in the attic She drops in on the sitting room after her routine to get me to come up to kiss her goodnight.
Also great when the teenager is being loud. Instead of shouting up I just drop in on his room and tell him to shut up without disturbing my beer time:)

dunno why i though it has to be answered but yeah drop in and it listens on the other end .if anyone has time to figure how to leave messages let me know, also spotify does it have to be premium account to link to alexa since got basic but seems alexa doesnt pick it up after app and skill installed,since see there 30 day trial so might give it a go to compare to amazon music.

davo2001

scamalert wrote: »

also spotify does it have to be premium account to link to alexa since got basic but seems alexa doesnt pick it up after app and skill installed,

It has to be a premium account, it's usually €10 per month but there is a thread on-going in bargin alerts where you can join a "family" account for €30 per year.

Here is the thread: https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057655713

faceman

davo2001 wrote: »

It has to be a premium account, it's usually €10 per month but there is a thread on-going in bargin alerts where you can join a "family" account for €30 per year.

Here is the thread: https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057655713

Student account is €5 per month

judeboy101

One of my alexas just stopped playing Spotify, other is fine checked app sais Spotify app unavailable, but in settings my account seems fine.

scamalert

have you premium service for more then one device,could be expired service only limiting to be used on one from what i gather ?

judeboy101

scamalert wrote: »

have you premium service for more then one device,could be expired service only limiting to be used on one from what i gather ?

I've Spotify premium its now stopped working on both alexas but still works on my google home device.

yoshimitsu

judeboy101 wrote: »

I've Spotify premium its now stopped working on both alexas but still works on my google home device.

That's odd... I use it daily on both my Echos and works without flaw.
try deleting and re-installing the skill, make it the default streaming service

judeboy101

yoshimitsu wrote: »

judeboy101 wrote: »

I've Spotify premium its now stopped working on both alexas but still works on my google home device.

That's odd... I use it daily on both my Echos and works without flaw.
try deleting and re-installing the skill, make it the default streaming service

Left it alone, woke up this morn both alexas working fine with Spotify. Lol

bittihuduga

question -
currently i have alexa via amazon user id 1.
it has several functions connected.
i want to disconnect user1 from alexa and try amazon user id 2 .
i am expecting none of my user1 functions will not be there. no worries
what happens if i disconnect user2 and login as user1 on my alexa?
would my functions will still be there?
i dont want to setup all of them again.

cletus

bittihuduga wrote: »

question -
currently i have alexa via amazon user id 1.
it has several functions connected.
i want to disconnect user1 from alexa and try amazon user id 2 .
i am expecting none of my user1 functions will not be there. no worries
what happens if i disconnect user2 and login as user1 on my alexa?
would my functions will still be there?
i dont want to setup all of them again.

I think you're talking about switching profiles. If so, no issue. Both my wife and I have a profile and my boys switch them just to see me get annoyed when Alexa won't respond. When I switch back, all my skills are there

irishgrover

Hi all, serious hyper nerd level Alexa question here, regarding drop in.....
Is it possible to configure Alexa in order to support specifing what alexa to drop into in a multi alexa household, which is not your own.

Example Scenario: My sister has 3 Alexas.... I am in her settings as someone who can drop in. However when I drop in I am only ever given one option... Drop in on "sister". I'm looking for the option to "Drop in on Sister Kitchen", "drop in on Sister Sittingroom" etc

degsie

irishgrover wrote: »

Hi all, serious hyper nerd level Alexa question here, regarding drop in.....
Is it possible to configure Alexa in order to support specifing what alexa to drop into in a multi alexa household, which is not your own.

Example Scenario: My sister has 3 Alexas.... I am in her settings as someone who can drop in. However when I drop in I am only ever given one option... Drop in on "sister". I'm looking for the option to "Drop in on Sister Kitchen", "drop in on Sister Sittingroom" etc

How would you know which one to choose?

davo2001

degsie wrote: »

How would you know which one to choose?

He doesn't because it's unfortunately not possible.

iamtony

irishgrover wrote: »

Hi all, serious hyper nerd level Alexa question here, regarding drop in.....
Is it possible to configure Alexa in order to support specifing what alexa to drop into in a multi alexa household, which is not your own.

Example Scenario: My sister has 3 Alexas.... I am in her settings as someone who can drop in. However when I drop in I am only ever given one option... Drop in on "sister". I'm looking for the option to "Drop in on Sister Kitchen", "drop in on Sister Sittingroom" etc

I don't know how close yous are but if you could sign in to your echo on her account you could then drop in on the kitchen in her house from that account. For instance I've an alexa in the car called dad's car and from that I can drop in on the bedroom or whatever when I'm out driving. Also from my phone I can drop in on any room in the house when out and about.
Alternatively she could possibly set up 3 separate accounts and have one for each echo and you could call them individually.

Out of interest when you do drop in on sister. Which device in her house does it choose to drop into? If you called your sister rather than dropped in. All 3 of her devices should ring, and her app on her phone and then she would answer the one she is closest too.

whiz

Hi Guys,

in the Uk , I see Amazon has rolled out functionality that allows users to pair their fire stick with Alexa devices .....is this functionality available in Ireland too ?

irishgrover

iamtony wrote: »

Out of interest when you do drop in on sister. Which device in her house does it choose to drop into? If you called your sister rather than dropped in. All 3 of her devices should ring, and her app on her phone and then she would answer the one she is closest too.

Hi, the bolded bit above is the solution that is so obvious that I forgot to consider it..thanks :-)

to answer your other question, when I drop in it always goes to the main device (well it was the first one installed, and is an echo as opposed to a dot)

For emergencies, I have her log in details and could as you suggest log into her account and drop in directly on specific device from my phone....

FYI: This is not a creepy sibling spying thing, rather a welfare situation and she is fully aware of everything re my access etc :-)

iamtony

irishgrover wrote: »

Hi, the bolded bit above is the solution that is so obvious that I forgot to consider it..thanks :-)

to answer your other question, when I drop in it always goes to the main device (well it was the first one installed, and is an echo as opposed to a dot)

For emergencies, I have her log in details and could as you suggest log into her account and drop in directly on specific device from my phone....

FYI: This is not a creepy sibling spying thing, rather a welfare situation and she is fully aware of everything re my access etc :-)

Ha yes I was thinking she might be disabled or something. If I thought you were creeping her I wouldn't of enabled you with my advice ha.

whiz

Hi Guys,

in the Uk , I see Amazon has rolled out functionality that allows users to pair their fire stick with Alexa devices .....is this functionality available in Ireland too ?

Nuttzz

whiz wrote: »

Hi Guys,

in the Uk , I see Amazon has rolled out functionality that allows users to pair their fire stick with Alexa devices .....is this functionality available in Ireland too ?

for what its worth i paired my dot to my fire tv

368100

Nuttzz wrote: »

for what its worth i paired my dot to my fire tv

How did you? Can you post the steps?

clintondaly

368100 wrote: »

How did you? Can you post the steps?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=202174250

donegal.

clintondaly wrote: »

https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=202174250

is this not US only?

chasm

donegal. wrote: »

is this not US only?

Available for Amazon UK customers since last month. If you only have 1 fire TV device it should be straightforward. I turned on firestick and then told Alexa to open Spotify on fire TV, and she connected automatically.

clintondaly

Howdy,

In case any of you have kids holidays coming up and they need to pass some time and dont get on your nerves,get them to try these games

https://www.cnet.com/how-to/alexa-games-to-keep-your-kids-busy/?ftag=CAD-04-10aaf6e&bhid=

Irish Gunner

Recently echo and Alexa are loosing their connection. So I have to reset them which is a pain in the A.I have bridged Virgin router tp link and have a 2.4ghz and 5ghz set up. They won't connect to the 5ghz on set up. I have harmony hub, Hue lights, android box, kasa plugs and browse on the phone. 5ghz has better speeds so use that for phone and Android box, when on.

Can you have to many connections on a WiFi and this is reason for Alexa to drop or any other reasons as its happened twice in two weeks now?

scamalert

Irish Gunner wrote: »

Recently echo and Alexa are loosing their connection. So I have to reset them which is a pain in the A.I have bridged Virgin router tp link and have a 2.4ghz and 5ghz set up. They won't connect to the 5ghz on set up. I have harmony hub, Hue lights, android box, kasa plugs and browse on the phone. 5ghz has better speeds so use that for phone and Android box, when on.

Can you have to many connections on a WiFi and this is reason for Alexa to drop or any other reasons as its happened twice in two weeks now?

no you cant have to many devices, id look at layout and any interference's wifi signal has to pass trough a lot of stuff and depending where you router sits and distance at times it could lose drop signal even thou 2.4 ghz supposed to have range but within house it could drop to 20 feet easily, as consumer grade routers are weak in general.I have exact setup as yours and experienced one time drop off on one of the dots but it never repeated,and as far as i know they dont support 5ghz band.

some approches you could take is use different channel for 2.4ghz (fixed) since standard ones like 6 and 13? usually are most used and can clash with neighboring wifi's, thou most are setup to jump between channels but just smth to try, if you look at pc see how many surrounding wifi's can you see ,since on my Nic i can see at least 20 AP's 6 being 100% excluding mine.

proper router with strong antennas is way to go, or if lesser measures could try those extender plugs not sure how effective they are though.

Also if you go into router it lests you pick channel width to 20/40 seems to work fine for me on 5ghz band but haven't setup on 2.4.

Irish Gunner

scamalert wrote: »

no you cant have to many devices, id look at layout and any interference's wifi signal has to pass trough a lot of stuff and depending where you router sits and distance at times it could lose drop signal even thou 2.4 ghz supposed to have range but within house it could drop to 20 feet easily, as consumer grade routers are weak in general.I have exact setup as yours and experienced one time drop off on one of the dots but it never repeated,and as far as i know they dont support 5ghz band.

some approches you could take is use different channel for 2.4ghz (fixed) since standard ones like 6 and 13? usually are most used and can clash with neighboring wifi's, thou most are setup to jump between channels but just smth to try, if you look at pc see how many surrounding wifi's can you see ,since on my Nic i can see at least 20 AP's 6 being 100% excluding mine.

proper router with strong antennas is way to go, or if lesser measures could try those extender plugs not sure how effective they are though.

Also if you go into router it lests you pick channel width to 20/40 seems to work fine for me on 5ghz band but haven't setup on 2.4.

Thanks

Thing is I have virgin router bridged and using a TP link router. I have it upstairs and Alexa downstairs. I set up the 2.4ghz and 5ghz can another be set up. Different WiFi in the area but only recently happening.

Any suggestions what else I can do?

scamalert

try to reset router, look if theres newer firmware released for it, since only seen now you mentioned tp-link as these go some are good some crap, maybe it times out when ur not using it or doesnt apply static ip, but hard reset might fix things up a bit if you acquired most of the IoT devices recently or havent touched your router in a while.

Since some routers have buffer overflow (dont remeber exact term) if ur using torrents streaming on multiple devices thus resulting in connection drops.

Simple solution would be to use VM router and see how it works, since besides not having nat they are fairly ok for medium size house,so not sure why bridged mode.

also look up alexa app just to make sure ur up to date, theres been few updates in recent months,thou again not sure if they apply to hardware or just software capabilities.