Setting up an Amazon Echo smart speaker

How to set up your Amazon Echo smart speaker

To set up the Amazon Echo speaker you will need the following: 

  1. The amazon Alexa app, available for iOS or Android.  

  1. The speaker connected to power outlet. 

  1. The WiFi password for the network you want to use for setting up your speaker. 

  1. An Amazon account. Note that you will be offered the possibility to create one during setup, but it is easier to have it available before starting the speaker setup process. For mor information on creating an Amazon account, see “Creating an Amazon Account.” 

Getting started with the Amazon Alexa app 

For first time users skip to  “Install Amazon Alexa app”  

If you already have the Amazon Alexa app set up, follow these steps: 

  1. Open the Amazon Alexa App. 

  1. Select the “devices” tab at the bottom of the screen. 

  1. Select the button “Add a new device or group”. 

  1. Select “Add device Echo, Smart home and Accessories” 

  1. The app should detect the Echo speaker that is ready to be installed. You can now skip to step 6.  Setting up your amazon speaker 

  

  1. Install Amazon Alexa app 

On your mobile phone or tablet, click on one of the links below to install the Amazon Alexa App: 

For iOS: Amazon Alexa on the App Store (apple.com) 

For Android: Amazon Alexa on the Google Play store (play.google.com)

The following instructions were tested on an iPhone running iOS 15.3, but the steps should be similar on Android. 

  1. Open the Amazon Alexa app 

When opening this app for the first time, it will ask you for permission to access Bluetooth. 

Press “ok” to allow this. 

  1. Sign in 

You will now be asked to sign in with your existing Amazon account. A link is also provided to start creating a new account. (See documentation link) 

Enter your email and password and press “Next’. 

  1. Identity confirmation 

You are now being asked to confirm who you are. Since one Amazon account can set up devices for multiple users you have 2 options: 

“Your Name” (Account holder) or  “I’m someone else” 

  1. Amazon terms  

This screen presents Amazon’s terms and conditions that you have to accept to continue. 

Press “Agree and continue” 

Setting up your amazon speaker

  1. Searching for devices to set up 

Amazon Alexa is now scanning for available devices to set up. 

You will see the following prompt: 

“Echo Dot can be set up”. Note that the name might be different if you are setting up another Amazon speaker model. We will assume in this guide that you are setting up an Echo Dot. 

Press “continue”. 

  1. Select your WIFI network 

The speaker will play a sound to confirm it is about to be set up 

We are now asked to enter details for the WIFI connection. 

Note that, if you have previously set up devices in this home, the WIFI might already be remembered and this step will be skipped. 

Select WiFi network and enter password. 

Press “Connect” 

  1. Choose language 

You will hear your speaker say: 

“Your Echo is ready”. 

We still have to set up the language you want to use to interact with it. 

Select the desired language from the list and press “continue”. 

  1. Which room is your Echo Dot in? 

Here you can choose to indicate in which room of your home the speaker will be set up. This is useful if you have multiple devices and want to issue commands to a specific one. For example, you can ask to have music played in the kitchen. 

Choose from the list provided or give your room a custom name. 

You can also choose to press “skip”. 

  1.  Where is your Echo Dot? 

Here we can enter the address where your speaker is located. You can type it in or, if it is already stored in your Amazon account, choose it from there. 

Press “Continue” 

  1. Name this address 

You can give the address you chose above a name to make it easy to refer to it when you talk to your speaker. For example, you can say: 

“Stop playing music when I leave home”. 

Select from the list of choices or enter a custom name. 

Press “Continue”. 

  1. Welcome to Echo dot! 

You can now watch a video that will give you more information about your new speaker. 

Press “skip” if you don’t want to view this video at the time. 

  1. Your Echo Dot is ready! 

You have finished setting up your new speaker!  

Press “Let’s go” and you will start a quick interactive tutorial on your speaker. You can now talk to it directly to learn some basic commands.