How to Set Up Alexa in Your Home

Balancing work, relationships, responsibilities, and personal goals is a tough act. It is enough to drive anyone to the edge. When you’re stuck between Skype calls with business clients, helping your kid with his math homework, and ordering groceries for dinner simultaneously, you fall into a management crisis. You look around for help, and in almost all cases, you end up sacrificing one task for another, which creates a big fat mess.

So, what’s your one true way out of this fix? Alexa.

Alexa enables you to be in three places at one time. It teaches your kid math and purchases groceries online for you, leaving enough time and space for you to impress your employers. If you don’t already have Amazon Alexa, then, read this guide and learn how to set up Alexa on Echo and Echo Dot in your home.

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What is Amazon Alexa?

First things first. What is Amazon Alexa, anyway? Alexa is a virtual assistant, developed and released by Amazon, the e-commerce giant, back in 2014. “Virtual” means that it doesn’t exist physically in the real world like a robot, but operates digitally on the cloud. Being an assistant, Alexa helps you with several tasks around the house, keeping you informed, entertained, connected, organized, and protected. How does it work? Via voice command. Yes, that’s right. All you need to do to summon Alexa is to say, “Alexa, are you there?” and it will appear instantly on your side, ready to make your day better.

What Can Alexa Do?

Let’s come down to its functionality. Alexa performs more than 25,000 tasks when prompted, from fetching search results on the web to playing your favorite tracks on Spotify. These capabilities of Alexa are called its “skills.” Amazon Alexa partners with tens of thousands of companies and brands to enrich your day-to-day experience and upgrade your lifestyle. These include NPR, Disney Stories, Food Network Kitchen, Headspace, ESPN and Ring home security, etc. The best thing about Amazon Alexa is that it keeps on getting smarter and adding new skills to its “Store,” which you can acquire free or through a paid subscription. Here is a quick overview of the Alexa features and top skills:

Schedules your meetings, organizes your to-do lists, and manages your appointments
Understands and processes voice commands in multiple languages
Gives Amazon Prime-exclusive deals to avid shoppers and updates on the delivery status
Finds local listings such as the nearest restaurants or other shops in your area within seconds
Provides accurate, minute-by-minute information about the weather and news in your locality
Offers generic nutrition tips to inspire you to eat and live in a healthy way
Suggests tried-and-tested exercises to increase your metabolism and tracks fitness routine
Looks up recipes from world-famous chefs for you and walks you through it step-wise
Pairs with your Audible collection to play audiobooks on the go
Connects to your TV remote control and controls your entertainment on command
Streams music from Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, Pandora, Apple Music, and more services
Helps you manage your bank accounts, credit cards, and financial transactions through the Alex skill
Automates tedious chores by controlling smart home devices like robot vacuums and more
Turns Echo speakers into security devices for listening and reporting suspicious sounds
Plays fun games like tic-tac-toe and 20 Questions with you when you’re feeling bored
Delivers basic first aid answers for instructional purposes and fetches help in emergencies via Ask My Buddy
Diagnoses what’s wrong with your pet and provides actionable advice or forwards the case to a vet
Sends a virtual hug to the friends and family you’re thinking about or missing
Makes donations to over 270 charities and organizations in your name
Tells a joke, explains itself, answers questions, teaches lessons and reads stories, etc.

What Do You Need to Set Up Alexa in Your Home?

You can’t just conjure Alexa up from the air. You need a few things to get started with your Amazon virtual assistant. For starters, get fast and reliable internet. Why? Because Alexa sends and receives information packets online using the internet connection in your household. It also communicates with and controls other smart home devices over the in-home network.

Second, to activate Alexa and access its capabilities, purchase an Amazon device with the virtual assistant built-in, like the Amazon Echo or Echo Dot. For this, you’ll also have to have an Amazon account, as well. Next, figure out the perfect location to set up and position the Amazon device, so it is always within reach. Lastly, connect your smartphone, PC, or tablet to the Wi-Fi and leave enough space in it to download the Alexa app, when needed. That’s all!

How to Set Up Alexa on Echo?

Amazon Echo is a smart speaker, which offers a premium sound quality, streams music from a wide variety of compatible platforms, doubles as a smart home hub, connects with other Echo devices in the house for a surround sound experience, and most importantly, comes with Alexa built-in. Here’s how to set up Alexa Echo:

Check your internet connection for speed and stability.
Turn on the Wi-Fi on your smartphone or tablet.
Download the Amazon Alexa app from Google Play Store or iTunes.
Follow the on-screen directions and set up your profile.
From the bottom-right corner, tap “Devices”.
Next, tap the “ ” symbol and select “Add Device.”
A list of device types will appear on the screen. Choose “Amazon Echo.”
Power up your Echo speaker by plugging it into a wall outlet.
Look at the light ring on the speaker. It should be in Setup Mode, which is signified by the orange color. If it is not, then hold down the dot symbol or Action button on the device for 15 seconds. The light indicator should go from blue to orange.
Pair the Amazon Echo with your phone by following a set of instructions that appear on the screen. This includes selecting the “Amazon-XXX” network for a short while.
In the app, add your in-home Wi-Fi connection and enter your password. The Echo setup is complete!
Then, use the wake word you’ve registered in the app for Alexa and speak it out loud. Alexa should reply to you from the now-connected Amazon Echo speaker.
Ask Alexa to “play music” and it will immediately stream tracks from your Amazon Music library by default.

To play music from your premium Spotify account:

Open the Alexa app on your phone and tap “Link Music Services” at the top.
Select “Link New Service” and choose the service to add from the list. You can only link one service at a time. Repeat the steps for adding more services.
Hit “Enable to Use.” This will take you to a new sign-in window.
Enter the login details for the respective music service.
Tap “Confirm” to save the settings and then, “Close” to activate the service on Echo.
Finally, open the “Visit Music Settings” option and change the default from Amazon Music to Spotify or another service you want Alexa to fetch first-hand. You can skip this step if you don’t have a platform preference.
Say the command, “Alexa, play rock on Spotify,” to your Echo and enjoy the music as it greets your ears!

How to Set Up Alexa on Echo Dot?

Amazon Echo Dot is a more compact, slimmed-down version of the Amazon Echo, and is a smart speaker, in essence. You can get it for half the price of the original Echo speaker and fit it easily into small spaces. Here’s how to set up Alexa Echo Dot:

Enable Wi-Fi on your smartphone and download the Amazon Alexa app from the play store.
Set up your profile on the app as mentioned above.
Find the “Devices” option at the bottom of the screen and tap it.
Select the “ ” sign in the upper right corner to “Add Device.”
Choose the icons in this order: Amazon Echo > Echo Dot > 3rd Generation (or whichever one you have).
Power on your Echo Dot speaker and wait for it to go into Setup Mode (light indicator switching from blue to orange).
As the Echo Dot appears on your phone, select it and the “Amazon-XXX” network it asks you to connect to in the network settings. You can change it later.
Return to the Alexa app, and verify your in-home Wi-Fi network along with the password. This is the network your Echo Dot will be using to run its operations.
Select external speakers for your Echo (if any) and the room where the device is located.
Command your Echo Dot by saying, “Alexa, play my music,” to wake up the assistant and test the speakers.

You’re all done!

The Bottom Line

The Amazon Alexa app is your gateway to connect multiple Amazon devices in your home. Not only that, but you can also control non-Amazon devices like smart TVs with Alexa integration using just your voice. Once the smart assistant is active on an intermediary device like the Echo, you can unleash your voice commands to manage your smart home seamlessly.

Keep this guide close by to learn how to set up Alexa Dot and Echo, the foundational Amazon gadgets, and make Alexa into an honorary member of your household.

Frequently Asked Questions

How to set up Echo Show?

To set up Echo Show, simply follow these steps:

Plug the device into a power outlet.
Once the Echo Show screen comes to life, select the language.
Connect it to your in-home Wi-Fi network.
Sign in to your Amazon account.
Confirm your time zone, address, and location of the Echo Show.
Create a name for the device and pick a wallpaper for it.
Follow the on-screen prompts to complete the setup.

How to set up Alexa to Wi-Fi?

To set up Alexa on new Wi-Fi, simply follow these steps:

Open the Amazon Alexa app on your phone.
Select “Devices” and tap “Echo & Alexa.”
Choose the device(s) you want to connect.
Access the “Wifi Network” option and tap “Change.”
See if your device is plugged in and in Setup Mode.
Once the device is ready to pair, the app will show a list of networks. Select the one you want and authenticate it by typing the password. That’s it!