74
votes
Accepted
How can I stop Alexa from ordering things if it hears a voice on TV?
Interesting, even though I have 1-Click purchasing activated my voice purchasing options have been deactivated by default. I have to actually activate them to buy stuff.
Currently Alexa cannot ...
- 8,220
21
votes
Accepted
Is the Amazon Echo mic mute a hardware switch?
According to Jeff Bezos, it's a hardware button, and various sources seem to agree from the teardowns
A forum post at the EEVblog forums quotes a video featuring Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon:
...
- 18.1k
20
votes
Accepted
How to use English Alexa Skills on my German Echo Dot
I figured it out. However my solution has some drawbacks. It's either or.
Here we go.
Go to Amazon.de Inhalte & Geräte (Content and Devices)
Click on other possible Kindle Shops where the US ...
- 8,220
20
votes
Accepted
Can I ask Alexa to turn off its microphone by voice command?
It appears that there is no way to mute the microphone by voice at this time, as you suggest; this Reddit thread confirms this, but unfortunately I couldn't find an official Amazon source for it. The ...
- 18.1k
19
votes
Making Amazon Echo / Alexa work outside of US, UK, Germany and Canada
TLDR: YES
Yes, Amazon Echo will work outside of the supported countries, but some functionality will be lost.
Power
Amazon Echo supports 110-220 volts which means it works across the whole world ...
- 801
17
votes
Accepted
Can Alexa ever speak without being prompted?
Yes, when Alexa loses power, upon recovery it will play a short melodic glissando followed by saying
"Hello."
This is entirely unprompted and often scares the snot out of me as jump to see who's ...
- 284
15
votes
How to change the Amazon Echo wake word?
Currently, Alexa supports very limited customisation of the wake word:
Currently, you can use these wake words:
Alexa
Echo
Amazon
Computer
The documentation also provides instructions for how to ...
- 18.1k
15
votes
Can I ask Alexa to turn off its microphone by voice command?
Plug the Alexa power supply into an Alexa-compatible smart outlet. Name the smart outlet "Alexa". You should now be able to tell it to turn itself off.
Turning it back on will have to be done some ...
- 259
14
votes
Accepted
How do I configure Alexa to access a REST API?
See these instructions.
Create an AWS developer account & AWS account.
In the AWS console
Create a lambda function. Include in the lambda function some code that will access the API. This can ...
- 551
14
votes
How to use English Alexa Skills on my German Echo Dot
Additionally to Helmar's answer, one might add the following:
You don't need to transfer your whole account. Under Content and Devices > Settings > Country Settings, don't click the big change button,...
13
votes
Accepted
Why would I need multiple Alexa devices in one home?
First, the main reason is not the Echo hearing you, but you hearing it. While my downstairs Echo Dot can usually pick up my shouting from upstairs, I usually can't hear it's response.
Now to your ...
- 351
12
votes
Accepted
How can I use Alexa to turn on/off multiple lights at the same time with SmartThings hub?
While you can create groups/scenes in some smart hubs, I believe* you have to recreate each Group within the Alexa app. (e.g. iOS Alexa app: Smart Home > Create Group)
Create a Smart Home Device ...
- 236
12
votes
Accepted
Will alarms set on one Amazon Echo be shared with all other devices in the same home?
Apparently not. This blog discusses the current impossibility of the synchronized alarms. I couldn't find any information that suggests that they changed it by now. However as the blog discusses, it ...
- 8,220
11
votes
Accepted
How to write custom Alexa Skills without 'Ask xxxx'
I've been exploring dropping the invocation name for Alexa custom skills myself for a couple of projects. And what I came up with after hours of reading through guides and documentations is that... It ...
11
votes
How to efficiently control my dumb TV via Alexa?
Your approach seems to be the best you can do, since the models you've listed don't support any sort of integration with Alexa (and I think it would be infeasible to modify the TV/cinema system ...
- 18.1k
10
votes
Accepted
Can you teach Alexa a new skill by voice?
It is possible to enable any skill by voice, provided you already know the name of the skill.
The Amazon documentation for adding skills is relatively straightforward:
If you know the exact name of ...
- 18.1k
10
votes
How can I stop Alexa from ordering things if it hears a voice on TV?
A simple but effective solution would be to move Alexa away from the TV. Unfortunately, this is not an option all of the time. If this because a consistent problem, you could turn down the volume of ...
- 571
10
votes
Why would I need multiple Alexa devices in one home?
Your quote is actually about the Echo / Echo Dot - physical products that provide interface to the Alexa service. But that is not all they do - they are also music streaming speakers for example. If ...
- 1,878
9
votes
Why does Alexa answer questions I didn't ask or prompt?
I can't speak for Alexa, but google on my phone frequently seems to mis-trigger, thinking it's heard the 'OK Google' when there is just noise. It doesn't seem to happen when the environment is quiet, ...
- 10.3k
9
votes
How can I find echo dot's MAC address without turning it off?
MAC vendor info is actually part of MAC address (check out on wikipedia_link)
If you have any laptop/PC/Mac attached to the network try to discover it by typing simple command in command prompt/shell
...
- 740
9
votes
Possible to assign a default "light" to a given Echo device?
Stumbled onto the answer while searching the SmartThings forum for a different issue.
In the Alexa app, you can create a group, which can contain both smart devices and an Echo device. By creating a ...
- 341
8
votes
How to write custom Alexa Skills without 'Ask xxxx'
You should be able to do this now with Alexa's name free interaction.
To make your skill more discoverable for name-free interaction, you can implement the the CanFulfillIntentRequest interface in ...
- 181
8
votes
Accepted
Can Alexa read Kindle books in the United Kingdom?
According to Amazon.com help section you can use the following commands to make Alexa read your ebooks:
Listen to a Kindle book: "Read my Kindle book." / "Read my book, '[title].'" / “Play the ...
- 96
8
votes
Using Login with Amazon (LWA) to Connect Custom Alexa Skill Fails
After some fiddling around with the involved Amazon components I figured it out. The blog itself and its focus on what the URL starts with is actually rather unhelpful or even misleading. In fact the ...
- 8,220
8
votes
How do I train my Amazon Echo to understand my voice more accurately?
In the US, you can use the Voice Training feature in the Alexa app. The option can be found by going to the Alexa app, selecting Settings, then Voice Training, then Start Session.
You will then be ...
- 18.1k
8
votes
How can I stop Alexa from ordering things if it hears a voice on TV?
This solution may not work for everyone.
Currently Alexa supports three languages: English US, English UK and German.
So if you know German, then you could switch and use Alexa in German (or vice-...
- 7,453
8
votes
Accepted
How does one capture the recognised text from Echo?
Custom skills can capture text and send them to your Skill's API.
If you're not completely familiar with how Alexa Skills work, here's a brief summary:
First, you register your Skill with Amazon, ...
- 18.1k
8
votes
Accepted
How do I enable drop-in calling on Alexa?
This feature is now available for Echo / Echo Dot as well. The following steps worked for me.
From the contacts both the parties must enable Drop In.
Say "Drop In to X" (Not "Call X". Call still ...
- 96
8
votes
Alexa checklist / reminder of things to take before going
Is it possible to get a (custom?) skill to configure a checklist Alexa would voice out?
Yes. It would probably be relatively easy to develop a skill to do this yourself, if there aren't any available,...
- 18.1k
8
votes
How can I find echo dot's MAC address without turning it off?
Since you asked Alexa for its MAC address, I would assume it is or has been connected to the internet.
Log in to your account at alexa.amazon.com, go to "Settings" > [your Dot] under "Devices", and ...
- 166
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