If you received an Echo Dot with Clock during the holidays, you might be wondering how to set it up. It’s not all that much different from the standard, third-generation Echo Dot. But the added LED display supports certain settings you might not know about.
Here’s how to set up with Echo Dot with Clock, plus the basic functions that make it more clever than its display-less Echo relatives.
How to set up the Echo Dot with Clock
Step 1: Plug in the Echo Dot with Clock to power it on. When it’s ready to connect, the light around the top of the device will turn orange. (Here’s a guide to what all of the Alexa light colors mean). Download the Alexa app to your mobile device and connect to your home Wi-Fi network to begin the setup process.
Step 2: In the Alexa app, select devices on the bottom menu bar > ‘+’ icon in the upper right corner > Add device > Amazon Echo > Echo Dot > 3rd Generation.
Step 3: Select ‘Yes’ to search for your Echo Dot with Clock. Select the Echo Dot from the list of available devices. It might have a number after it–it won’t matter to the setup process.
Step 4: Enter your Wi-Fi credentials to add your Echo Dot with Clock to your home network.
Step 5: Follow the prompts to customize your Echo Dot with Clock. You can change the name of the speaker, designate the location, make it understand your voice, and more. Check out our guide to Alexa for getting started with a new Echo device.
What can the Echo Dot with Clock display?
- Timers and alarms.
- Time with your preferred format (24 or 12-hour clock).
- Outdoor temperature.
- Changes on volume, equalizer, and display brightness.
How to control the Echo Dot with Clock display
Here are some things you can say to operate your Echo Dot with Clock’s display:
- “Alexa, turn display [on / off].”
- “Alexa, turn clock [on / off].”
- “Alexa, change to 24-hour clock format.”
- “Alexa, set brightness to 10.”
- “Alexa, change brightness to minimum.”
- “Alexa, set a timer.”
For more Alexa-related tips, tricks, and how-tos, check out our complete guide to Alexa and if things go wrong with your Echo Dot, we’ve also got a guide to How to reset an Echo Dot.
Echo Show is a convenient little device that seamlessly fits perfectly in any household. Thanks to its versatile design, it blends with the decor while simultaneously offering a wide range of different features.
You can turn this device into a picture frame, check the weather, or see the latest news. However, some people just want the device to remain on the clock screen and not rotate to all those other display cards.
Although there’s no way for an Echo Show to constantly display the clock, there’s a method that will make this card appear much more frequently than before. Let’s find out how.
First Method: Limit the Rotation of Display Cards
Your Echo Show is set to constantly rotate the display cards. Although you can’t permanently disable rotation, you can set the rotation to happen only once.
When the display screen switches to all the different display cards, it will return to the clock screen and remain there until you activate it again.
You may limit the screen rotation via the settings menu on the device. Here’s what you should do:
- Swipe down from the top of the screen of your Echo Show to display the quick-access bar.
- Select the “Settings” (gear) icon at the top right of the bar.
- Tap the “Home Screen” menu from the list.
- Select “Home Screen Preferences”.
- Tap “Rotate Once” under the “Rotation” section.
When you do this, scroll down and make sure that all items under the “Displayed Home Cards” section are disabled. This ensures that no other display screen beside the clock will rotate multiple times.
Now return to your home screen and wait for the display cards to continue switching until they go back to the clock. The display should stop there and not move until you trigger it with your finger or voice command.
Second Method: Activate “Do Not Disturb”
The “Do Not Disturb” feature on Echo Show will prevent all notifications and alerts coming from Amazon Alexa. This means that you won’t know about any incoming calls or any new message, but most importantly, your display won’t change.
When you activate this mode, the display will instantly go back to the clock screen and remain that way until you deactivate it. It obviously has its limitations but it’s the best way to ensure that your Echo Show stays on the clock-screen.
To enable the feature, you can say “Alexa, don’t disturb me,” or “Alexa, do not disturb” and the display should immediately change. Alternatively, you can do this from the Alexa app itself:
- Launch the Alexa app on your smart device.
- Tap the “Menu” icon located at the top-left.
- Select “Settings”.
- Go to the “Device Settings” menu.
- Choose your Echo Show from the list of the devices.
- Tap “Do Not Disturb”.
- Toggle the switch on.
From this screen, you can schedule the “Do Not Disturb” mode for a certain period of the day. This can be convenient during resting hours when you don’t want to receive any alerts. In turn, you can always keep track of the time from the Echo Show display.
Are You Irritated by the Non-Stop Scrolling?
Are you frustrated by the constant scrolling of display cards? Is that why you want Echo Show to stay on the clock-screen? Unfortunately, besides the two above options, there’s no other way to stop scrolling. It has to rotate at least once and the “Do Not Disturb” mode limits all other features.
That said, you may simply turn off the Echo Show display and get on with your business while you still receive all important messages and calls. Simply say “Alexa, turn off the display” and the screen will go completely dark.
You may not keep the clock-only screen on the device, but at least the rotating cards won’t disturb you while you need to focus on other things. Furthermore, you can still listen to music and issue commands while the screen is dark.
No Permanent Solution for the Moving Clock
As you see, there’s no simple, nor permanent way to make your Echo Show stay on the clock. Still, this doesn’t mean you can’t work around the issue with one of the methods explained above.
As long as the device remains idle, you can enjoy the clock-only screen. Even if you use the device for some time, leave it to rotate and it will eventually return to the clock screen. Overall, until Amazon launches a feature that enables you to display only the clock screen, you’ll have to settle for these options.
Which one would you choose? Share your opinions in the comments section below.
How do i change the time on my alexa echo. On the Echo Look Note. Tap the Home Screen menu from the list. How to change location. On the Echo Show theres a Settings label underneath the icon. Thankfully changing your location can be done rather easily. Jump over to our post here to learn more. Open the settings by swiping down from the top of the screen and then tapping the little gear icon. Swipe down from the top of the screen of your Echo Show to display the quick-access bar. Tap the Echo Alexa icon and choose the one you want to change. To enter or change your address do the following. First of all you need to open the Alexa app on your smartphone and then tap on the menu button thats located in. How to Change Your Location on Alexa.
KnowTechie Tap Announces From then tap on All Devices. Discontinuing as of July 2020 only you can see and delete the photos in your account. Alexa will identify which account is active when you ask her to take a picture. Open the Alexa app. How do i change the time on my alexa echo Select Echo Alexa. Tap Amazon Kids and then tap Amazon Kids Settings. The easiest way to change the time zone is within the Alexa app. Before setup download or update the Alexa app in your mobile device app store. Press the Update button. Change the wake word. Set your region and time zone in the. Login with your Agency account. Open the Alexa app and hit the Devices section on the bottom-right of the screen.
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How do i change the time on my alexa echo How do you change Alexas name voice or accent.
How do i change the time on my alexa echo. Open More and select Add Device. This works for whatever Echo device you have on your network from the Echo Dot to the Echo Studio. Alexa turn display on off Alexa turn clock on off Alexa change to 24-hour clock format.
Select Echo Echo Dot Echo Plus and more. In the Alexa app tap the Settings icon on the bottom bar. Select the Settings gear icon at the top right of the bar.
In the app tap the Device icon and then All Devices. This video shows you how to set or change your Amazon Alexa device locationSee more videos by Max here. With this change well also be running through whether this is the only way to change the time of on your speaker.
Select the device youve added your kid to. If Alexa and your Echo arent responding try changing the wake word and see if that gets your smart speaker and digital assistant back up and running. You just need to follow the next few steps.
From there select Home Clock option Echo Dot Home Screen option Echo Show. Choose the Alexa device that you wish to enable FreeTime on. Plug in your device.
Click the pencil icon to edit your current payment information. If all else fails try resetting the Alexa-enabled device back to factory defaults to fix the issue. 1 Tap More in the bottom bar.
Here are some things you can say to operate your Echo Dot with Clocks display. Type out what you want Alexa to remember and select the Time and Date you want to be reminded Image. Finding your Echos settings From there you now have two dropdowns to choose your time zone one for your country and one for your local time zone region.
Tap your kids name and then follow the prompts to add content set daily time limits pause or resume. Then tap on your Echo device. Scroll down and look for the Device time zone option.
Reset the Alexa-enabled device to factory defaults. Follow the instructions to set up your device.
How do i change the time on my alexa echo Follow the instructions to set up your device.
How do i change the time on my alexa echo. Reset the Alexa-enabled device to factory defaults. Scroll down and look for the Device time zone option. Then tap on your Echo device. Tap your kids name and then follow the prompts to add content set daily time limits pause or resume. Finding your Echos settings From there you now have two dropdowns to choose your time zone one for your country and one for your local time zone region. Type out what you want Alexa to remember and select the Time and Date you want to be reminded Image. Here are some things you can say to operate your Echo Dot with Clocks display. 1 Tap More in the bottom bar. If all else fails try resetting the Alexa-enabled device back to factory defaults to fix the issue. Click the pencil icon to edit your current payment information. Plug in your device.
Choose the Alexa device that you wish to enable FreeTime on. From there select Home Clock option Echo Dot Home Screen option Echo Show. How do i change the time on my alexa echo You just need to follow the next few steps. If Alexa and your Echo arent responding try changing the wake word and see if that gets your smart speaker and digital assistant back up and running. Select the device youve added your kid to. With this change well also be running through whether this is the only way to change the time of on your speaker. This video shows you how to set or change your Amazon Alexa device locationSee more videos by Max here. In the app tap the Device icon and then All Devices. Select the Settings gear icon at the top right of the bar. In the Alexa app tap the Settings icon on the bottom bar. Select Echo Echo Dot Echo Plus and more.
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Alexa turn display on off Alexa turn clock on off Alexa change to 24-hour clock format. This works for whatever Echo device you have on your network from the Echo Dot to the Echo Studio. Open More and select Add Device. How do i change the time on my alexa echo.
The latest version of Amazon Echo Show has a smooth interface and extremely high image quality. But to make more space for visually stunning background images, the display clock appears smaller than ever before.
Unfortunately, there’s (still) no permanent way to make an Echo Show clock bigger. However, there are some alternative methods that you can try out if you want to enlarge the clock (even temporarily).
This article will go through three different ways to enlarge your Echo Show clock, at least for a short period.
Option One: Enable the Screen Magnifier
The Screen Magnifier is an Echo Show feature that allows you to enlarge certain parts of the screen display. This feature will improve the readability of certain Echo Show display cards – news screen, books from your Kindle library, and even music videos and games.
On the other hand, you can use the Screen Magnifier to enhance the Echo Show’s home screen and make them appear clearer when idle. For example, enhancing the home screen clock will make it clear and visible from the furthest corners of the room.
How to Activate Screen Magnifier?
The screen magnifier feature is integrated into every Echo Show device. You just have to enable it from the settings menu.
If you want to use the voice commands, you can just say: “Alexa, enable Screen Magnifier”. This should activate the feature so you can use it right away.
If for some reason Alexa doesn’t recognize the command, you can always turn it on manually. To do so, follow these steps:
- Swipe down from the top of the Echo Show to display the quick access menu.
- Tap the “Settings” menu.
- Scroll to the bottom and choose “Accessibility.”
- Toggle the “Screen Magnifier” option.
How to Use Screen Magnifier
Once you enable the Screen Magnifier, it’s fairly simple to use. Tap any area of the screen three times to zoom in and take up the entire display. To make your clock bigger, tap on it three times. This can also be useful while reading and even maximizing certain areas of TV shows and movies.
To move to another part of the screen, just place two fingers on the display and drag it across the screen. Additionally, you can zoom in and out to other touch screen displays – just pinch inward (zoom out) or outward (zoom in).
If you want to make the clock bigger temporarily, tap on it three times and hold your finger on the screen. Once you release your finger, the screen will return to its regular size. You can use this for any part of the screen on any display card.
Keep in mind that you need to tap quickly. If you tap the clock too slowly, you won’t enlarge it. Also, if you tap too quickly, the device won’t recognize the gesture.
Option Two: Enable Do Not Disturb Mode
The Do Not Disturb mode will display a background clock that’s a bit larger than the one on the home screen. If you need to enlarge the clock temporarily (and if you’re further away from the device), you can just use the voice command: “Alexa, enable the do not disturb mode”.
You can also swipe down from the top of the device and enable the “Do not Disturb” mode on the quick access menu. Or, enter the “Settings” (gear icon on the quick access menu) menu and toggle it there.
This mode will display the clock more clearly and may help if you had trouble recognizing the digits before. However, this is only a temporary solution as you’ll need to disable the mode in due time so you can use the device.
Follow the same steps or say: “Alexa, disable the do not disturb mode” to return to the regular home screen.
Option Three: Choose a Bigger Clock in Settings
The Echo Show offers you a choice between a variety of different clock types in the Settings menu. There’s a chance that your default clock is of the smaller type, and you can fix it by choosing a larger one.
Follow these steps:
- Swipe down from the top of the screen.
- Tap “Settings.”
- Go to “Home & Clock.”
- Tap “Clock.”
- Choose one of the available options.
- Adjust the configurations of the chosen category as per your preferences.
When you return to the home screen you can see if you like the new type of the clock more. If not, you can repeat the steps until you find the better one.
We’re Gonna Need a Bigger Clock
Currently, there’s no integrated option (nor skill) to make your Echo Show permanently display your clock in a larger size without hampering the other functions of the device.
However, the aforementioned options are viable alternatives until a potential update or a future version includes this feature.
Which of the above options would you prefer? Do you have any other solutions? Share your experience in the comments section below.
Unlike the other Alexa speakers, you can put your own spin on the Echo Show and Echo Spot. Here’s how.
With the first several Amazon Alexa speakers, the most you could hope to personalize or customize their appearance was by disguising it with a case or wrapping them with a vinyl skin. The newer generation of Alexa speakers , however, are dominated by touchscreen displays.
With the Echo Show ($34 at Amazon) and Echo Spot ($100 at eBay) , you’ll likely be less worried about changing its physical appearance and more apt to tweak its home screen to your personal preferences. Here’s how to do just that.
How to change the Echo Show and Echo Spot home screen
Customizing the appearance of the home screen on the Echo Show or Spot is mostly straightforward.
- Swipe down from the top of the display and select Settings (the cog icon).
- Scroll down and select Home & Clock.
- Select Clock.
- Choose between Recent Clocks, Modern, Playful, Photography, Classic and Personal Photos.
No matter which category you select, there are multiple configurations to choose between. For instance, if you select Classic, there are five different clocks to choose from: Zen, School House, Kaleidoscope, Texture and Stellar. These clocks have different backgrounds that will cycle by default. If you’d rather it stick to a single background, swipe to a clock and tap the edit button (the pencil icon) at the top and select Background. Scroll through the different options available and tap the check mark to save.
Likewise, you can also customize how the clock face actually looks. There are several different clock faces to choose from, which range from minimalist analog faces to modern digital clocks. To choose a different clock face, tap the edit button once more and select Clock Face. Scroll to the one you like and tap the check mark. While editing a particular clock, you can also opt to show the date.
One of the more unique and clever clocks available is Orbit (found under the Playful category). The default clock face for Orbit shows the standard hour marks and has three planets that “orbit” around the face. The smallest planet is the second hand, the medium-size planet is the minute hand and the largest is the hour hand.
Taylor Martin/CNET
If you select Personal Photos, you will either need to be signed up for Prime Photos or use the Alexa app. You can select different photos from your Prime Photos account directly from the speaker by going to Settings > Home & Clock > Clock > Personal Photos > Background > Prime Photos. However, if you want to load a photo directly from your phone, select Alexa App Photo instead of Prime Photos. To sideload your photo, open the Alexa app and go to Settings > [Your Echo Show/Spot] > Home Screen Background, select a photo and tap Upload. After just a few seconds, the photo will appear as the background image on your Alexa speaker.
How to change what shows on your Echo Show or Spot home screen
Your Echo Show or Echo Spot can show you more information than just the time, of course. This information is referred to as Home Cards. To choose which cards show on your home screen, swipe down from the home screen once more and select Settings. Go to Home & Clock > Home Cards.
The cards that can be displayed on the home screen are:
- Messaging
- Weather
- Notifications
- Upcoming Events
- Reminders
- Drop In
- Trending Topics
In this same menu, you can choose whether the cards are shown continuously while only periodically showing you the clock or rotated through once when new information is available.
Echo Show and Echo Spot Night Mode
If you keep an Echo Show or Echo Spot by your bedside, you likely don’t want it showing all of this information at full brightness through the night. Rather than manually lowering the brightness when you get in bed, enable Night Mode.
Get to this setting by going to Settings > Home & Clock > Night Mode. Tap to enable Nighttime Clock. And below that, you can set a schedule for when the clock face should dim and when Nighttime Clock should turn off each day.
Pokud dáváte přednost formátu 24hodinového času namísto obvyklého 12hodinového formátu, Amazon nedávno (a tiše) přidal možnost přepínat mezi dvěma na Echo Show a Echo Spot.
Jedná se o "vojenský čas", který není zcela populární, ale používá se v několika průmyslových odvětvích – armádě (tedy přezdívce), letectví a nemocnicích. Používáte-li tento formát času a máte Echo na displeji, přečtěte si, jak přejít.
Otevřete nastavení přetažením dolů z horní části obrazovky a klepnutím na malou ikonu ozubeného kola. Na Echo Show je pod ikonou "Nastavení".
Zvolte možnost "Home & Clock" (Echo Dot) "Home Screen" (Echo Show).
Přepněte přepínač "24 hodinový čas", abyste jej povolili.
Vaše hodiny nyní zobrazí 24hodinový formát.
Všechno ostatní (jako tapeta a motiv) zůstává stejné.
Craig LloydCraig Lloyd
Writer
Craig Lloyd is a smarthome expert with nearly ten years of professional writing experience. His work has been published by iFixit, Lifehacker, Digital Trends, Slashgear, and GottaBeMobile. Read more.
If you use your Echo Spot as a bedside alarm clock, then you might benefit from turning on Night Mode. This feature changes the background to black and dims the screen so that it doesn’t blind you at night while you’re trying to sleep.
Before we get started showing you how to to enable Night Mode, keep in mind that it only dims the screen a certain percentage. So, if you have your Echo Spot at full 100% brightness, Night Mode won’t dim it all the way down to the dimmest setting. Whereas if you have the screen brightness at 50% or so, the screen will dim a lot more when in Night Mode.
I do wish that the screen dimmed down all the way even at 100% brightness—maybe Amazon will release a software update in the future to address this, but for the time being, keep this in mind.
To enable Night Mode, start by swiping down from the top of the screen, and then tapping on the settings gear icon.
Scroll down, and then tap the “Home & Clock” option.
At the bottom, tap the “Night Mode” option.
Next, tap the “Nighttime Clock” toggle.
After that, you can tap the “Scheduled” option if you want to enable and disable Night Mode automatically at certain times.
You may find that even at the dimmest setting, the screen might be just a bit too bright, especially if you like to sleep in pitch darkness. However, I was personally happy with just how dim the screen got in Night Mode—it was never blinding, but I could still easily see the time whenever I glanced over at it.
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Craig Lloyd
Craig Lloyd is a smarthome expert with nearly ten years of professional writing experience. His work has been published by iFixit, Lifehacker, Digital Trends, Slashgear, and GottaBeMobile.
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Due to its versatile appearance and customizable home screen, Echo Show can be a nice addition to any room. It can constantly display the time, weather, news, and other essential information when idle.
However, since there are plenty of different things to display, the Echo Show needs to scroll through different displays to show you everything. But what if you want this scrolling (rotation) to stop?
Currently, it’s near-impossible to do so completely. That said, there are some minor solutions. But before you learn all about them, you should find out what these visual cards are, exactly. Keep reading and all will be explained.
Visual Cards: The Echo Show Display
To know why your Echo Show scrolls and rotates, you’ve got to understand the visual cards. These cards are a visual response to a voice command given to your Amazon Alexa. For example, if you say: “Alexa, show me the weather for today”, the Echo Show will display a screen that accompanies the voice of Amazon Alexa. This screen is a visual card.
Since Echo Show is compatible with all Amazon Alexa skills, these skills all have an interface in the form of visual cards. Some are only displayed when you initiate the skill, such as Amazon Music, YouTube, and others. However, plenty of enabled skills display your visual card on the rotating screen while you’re idle. Some of them include weather, calendar, clock, thermostat, and plenty of others.
Unfortunately, Echo Show is yet to launch a feature that allows you to get rid of rotating display cards. They will scroll on your home screen for as long as you’re idle. There’s only one way that you can temporarily stop the rotation and make the screen stay on one particular card – the clock.
Set Card Rotation to ‘Only Once’
By default, the Echo Show is set to rotate the screen continuously. Although you can’t completely turn off the rotation, you can adjust the settings so it scrolls until the end only once. Afterward, the display will stop on the clock display card for the time it remains idle.
You can access the rotation options from the settings. Follow these steps:
- Swipe down from the top of the device to reach the quick-access menu.
- Tap the ‘Settings’ icon (gear icon) on the right of the menu.
- Select the ‘Home Screen’ menu.
- Tap the ‘Home Screen Preferences’.
- Choose ‘Rotate Once’ from the ‘Rotation’ section.
When finished, swipe down to the quick access menu again and return to the home screen. Now you can just wait for the display cards to rotate, and once the screen shows the clock card, it won’t rotate anymore.
Note that this solution is only temporary. The first time you activate the home command or you use the Echo Show device, the screen will return to the first card and start rotating back to the clock. However, once it reaches the clock card, it will stop.
You can enable the continuous cycling again if you follow the steps 1-5 from above and choose ‘Rotate Continuously’ under the ‘Rotation’ section.
Are There Any Other Ways to Stop Scrolling?
Unfortunately, the Echo Show screen will always rotate at least once after you use it.
If you’re annoyed by the moving display, the only thing that you can do is issue a voice command to turn off the display. Say: “Alexa, turn off the display” and your Echo Show will go black.
There Might Be a Rotationless Feature in the Future
As you can see, you have to go through the home screen cycling at least once before it stays on a specific card. However, this shouldn’t be a big problem as the device is idle for the most part.
Nevertheless, plenty of users reported the frustration in their inability to freeze the home screen, so there should be improvements on this front in the future.
Do you find it frustrating that you can’t completely stop the home screen from rotating? Will it be different in the future? Share your experiences with this device in the comments section below.
I'm considering buying DS 'an Alexa' but I'm confused by all the options and I don't seem to be able to find a simple 'Alexa'?
We have no other Alexa type devices in the house, and the idea was that it could be a speaker for DS to keep in his room and use to connect to his iPhone to play music, and a way to play Spotify tracks, plus maybe an alarm?
Can anyone help me untangle their options please!
Echo Dot is the basic speaker with Alexa that will do what you require.
By the way, the sound quality is good on the dots for playing music.
@LegoLady95 ah I see! Thank you. So we need an Echo.
Am off to look at the different echos.
An echo dot would fulfill all those options and do much more if needed. Just ask Alexa to do those things and she’ll do it.
We have 2 dots in the house and an echo show in our motorhome. I’m much, much older than your son and it is easy for us so it’ll be a breeze for him.
They’re basically all the same thing (we have all 3 🙈). The echo dot is the smallest and doesn’t come with a display, the echo is a bigger speaker and then the echo show comes with a display which I think you can also use to video call?
If it’s just for playing music and asking random questions I’d look at getting the echo (the taller speaker) the dot’s ok but the sound quality is better on the regular echo.
Alexa is just the voice interface for the software – the voice that answers questions and searches for info you ask for.
Echo is the Amazon range of hardware – the speakers.
Dot is the actual speaker. It’s round and quite flat. There are other Echos such as the Spot and the Show. The Dot is fine for your son.
If you wait til Black Friday, they’ll be discounted. We have 3 Echo Dots, never paid more than £25 for one.
Dot should work fine, you can get one with a clock, which might be handy if he’s using it as alarm. Worth doing it on black friday, in prime day they were half price and often reduced in black Friday as well.
Agreeing that a dot would be fine for what you want. I bought two last year (Black Friday) for the kids bedrooms.
Agree the dots were really cheap last year on Black Friday £18/£20 I think.
I also have a feeling they may have come down in price just before the Friday itself – they did seem to go very quickly so you need to look earlier rather than later but maybe now more people have them there won't be such a rush!
Pretty sure they were almost free for first timers with an unlimited music subscription. wait for black Friday and just get the basic echo dot
I've just bought the Echo Dot on the Amazon Prime sale day for £18 and I think it would be perfect for your son. Alexa is the software which you can use with any smart speaker. Our main speaker is a Bose and I have the Amazon Music app which includes Alexa so I just use it in the same way as I would the Echo Dot.
We have just starting playing with the Echo after we were given a second hand Echo and 2 Dots at the weekend. I have also bought ds a Echo Show with a 5" screen for Xmas to replace his alarm clock. So we have the Echo in the Living Room and an Echo Dot in the kitchen and ds’s room.
There are different Amazon devices that all use Alexa – Echo, Echo Dot, Echo Dot with Clock, Echo Show, Echo Spot.
The Show and the Spot have screen which have extract functions such as showing a clock, having a camera call, showing temperature etc. Check out youtube to see what they do.
All will play music, they are linked to ds’s spotify account, but I haven’t worked out yet how we can play different music on different devices.
For an alarm/clock look at the Dot with a clock or one with a screen. There are new 4th generation ones available this year that are ball shaped rather than the 3rd gen puck shaped ones. 3rd gen ones should be going cheap soon and I expect they will discontinue them eventually, but I couldn’t find any 3rd gen with a clock and eventually decided on the Show instead as the price difference between that and the 4th Gen Dot with clock wasn’t much.
If you get another one for downstairs you can "drop in" on upstairs and use as an intercom which we are finding very handy, saves shouting upstairs. Or "announce" a message, useful for things such as "dinners ready now".
The other function I am finding useful, if you get one for downstairs is the shopping list. Alexa add toothpaste to shopping list and it shows on the Alexa app.
You load the Alexa app on your phone/tablet and can also use the drop in/announce functionality from there to a Dot upstairs and can view your shopping list (or any other list you have created).
We haven’t got as far as using the smart home features yet as they seem to need more bits, but have bought colour changing bulbs (cheap ones that don’t need a home hub) for ds for xmas and his Echo Show came in a pack that contained a free smart plug which I hope he can use for the fan in his bedroom with "Alexa switch fan on/off".
Yes, be warned they can be addictive. We now have three dots in bedrooms and a Show in the kitchen/diner. Use it a lot to 'drop into' kids rooms and call everybody for meals using 'announce'. The Show is quite nice in the kitchen for recipes. It is great when you notice you are running low on an item and can add to your shopping list with your voice instead of cleaning hands to write on a list. Otherwise it is mainly music/radio. I believe they can read your audio books to you, although I haven't tried that yet.
Thank you all so much h for the detailed advice. I love Mumsnet sometimes!
I think a 4th gen echo with an LED clock display will serve our purposes best- as DS also needs an alarm clock and frequently uses timers.
I may ask some relatives who need present ideas to look at accessories- I'm sure DS would like a colour changing bulb.
