I’m in Canada and asked “Is gay marriage legal in Taiwan” and a few other countries and she responds with “Sorry, I don’t have an answer for that.”

I have reminders set to be played back on all my echo dots. Usually they're out of synch with some delayed. The amount of delay varies, sometimes it's just a slight echo, other times it's far worse.

The only thing I can think of is a wi-fi signal strength problem, but I've no signs of wi-fi problems from other devices. Music played on all devices is also in synch.

Has anyone else had this problem and found a fix (switching on and off doesn't help)? I could try a router upgrade, but that's an expensive option for just a guess based on zero evidence it'll help.

I’m trying to set up a Xbox with my new Alexa Echo pop and when I press enable skill nothing happens

I've seen some different threads on this, but no clear resolutions.

After experimenting with the suggested solutions, here's where I stand:

I have a white noise playlist on spotify that is triggered to play through my alexa "goodnight" routine. Months ago, it had no issues playing through the night (its an 11 hour playlist), but for the past several months it stops playing in the middle of the night.

I wasnt sure if this was a speaker dependent issue, so I tried on swapping out my sonos speaker for an old echo I had previously been using, same issue. I experimented playing the playlist directly on my phone, and it plays through the night. To me this means its not a spotify issue, nor a hardware issue, but an alexa<->spotify issue.

To further solidify my belief that its a software issue, I have taken timestamps of when it times out and it appears to consistently be around the 5 hour mark; e.g. I start it at 11pm, it times out around 4am. I re-engage the playlist in the middle of the night, and it play through the morning and it times out again around 9am. There is no timer set on the routine.

I scoured the alexa app for settings that might trigger this time out, to no avail. My echo SW is up to date, as is my spotify and alexa apps on my phone, though id assume those are not tied together if alexa is grabbing the spotify playlist directly.

Anyone else experiencing this issue that has found a resolution?

I’ve had eufy light bulbs for a long time and recently they started not working with Alexa. When I try, it says I need to go in the Alexa app and re enable the skill. If anyone would be so kind to walk me through that process, I’d greatly appreciate it. I’m getting old and I dont remember how I did it. Thanks so much

I’m posting this to help others trying to decide between these two products. I recently cut cords with cable. I purchased two Amazon firesticks and one cube. Here’s what you should know about what each product offers:

Secondary TV I installed the Fire TV stick on the extra TV. It works well. I installed 7-8 streaming apps I use most. I’m quite happy with it.

Main TV I installed the second Fire TV stick to our living room TV. This one did not work as well. I ended up purchasing the Cube instead and absolutely love it. Here’s why:

1. Cube has tons more memory: The stick has like 5 Mb memory, a huge portion which is the native Amazon apps (mostly useless). Once you download your primary apps, Netflix, YouTube, Disney+, etc. there’s very little memory left. You can’t download TV channel apps. There’s no memory. You can’t play games or you will run out of memory. I couldn’t even update Netflix because there wasn’t enough memory. So if you are planning on running lots of apps, to make your experience similar to having cable, the Stick is a no. However, the Cube is fantastic!

2. Cube is snappier: The stick is fine, but the cube seems faster and snappier.

3. Cube has wired connection: This is another big one for me. The Stick runs on Wi-Fi so a lot of the castings were choppy and low pixel. The cube has wired internet connection option. I have a mesh network setup so I ran a cable form my Eero to the Cube. Perfect! No more slow streaming.

4. Using Alexa is much easier: when I set up the Stick I paired it with an Echo. Oddly, it didn’t work too well. When I said “Alexa, turn on the TV” it wouldn’t work and said it can’t do that (since it’s a Samsung TV). I would have to specifically say “Alexa, turn on the Fire TV stick” so that it would work. When I would say “Alexa, put it on abc news”, it would start playing news on the Echo instead of turning on the TV and playing the abc news channel which is what I wanted. It sucked so much that I stopped using Alexa. Now, with the Cube, everything works very well and I can used voice commands easily (I moved the Echo upstairs!).

So if you’re thinking of the extra cost of the Cube is worth it, then you have your answer. For your primary TV, it’s absolutely worth it. For a part time TV, it’s a bit too much and the Stick is good enough.

My devices don't show up in the Spotify iPhone app. Any way to fix this?

My family is learning French, so we asked Alexa to speak both French and English. On some devices in the house, she speaks english with a french accent. On others she speaks french with a terrible american accent.

Anyone tried multi-language mode? What did you do with it, and how did you make it great?

Hi,

I was kinda wondering would the oem mounting bracket for the echo hub fit onto a standard outlet? Like, directly over of the outlet? Will this work? I'm from canada, if this matters.

Used the Vicki skill with good success. It's still installed on my PC, but suddenly "not supported".

Have they changed the OS of my Echo dots so much, that programs are simply not compatible?

Ordered a Spot today and disappointed to be returning it 😕 I have the Dot and wanted something with the display. Unfortunately it doesn't seem like the mic is not near as good on the Spot.

I use a smart bulb and do commands like "room warm" but for some reason the Spot will dim my lights really low instead of changing the room to the "warm" color. I re enabled my original Dot and had no issues. With moving the Spot to multiple spots in the room, it would only dim my room really low unless I said "color warm". It also seemed to not pick up on my wake word as easily.

I have a Qolsys IQ 4 panel for my home security that is a Zwave hub for all my devices. Each room has a Leviton switch for a light and another for the ceiling fan. So there are 5 ceiling fans (living room light, guest fan, etc) and over a dozen lights (guest light, kitchen light, hall light, etc). When I activate the Alexa skill for my home security, Alexa finds all the devices but they are listed as other type and I can't edit this. So even though I have the rooms with an Alexa grouped with their lights (guest room group has guest light, guest fan, and guest echo)... walking into the room and saying "Alexa, turn on the light) she asks which one. It was suggested naming everything uniquely, but it doesn't work to do something like GRL, GRF etc. Since Alexa will still ask for the unique name. And we have over 30 switches so calling one thing Mario and another Luigi isn't going to cut it.

So... any other suggests? Not sure why Alexa won't let me redefine the device type. I just want to walk into a room and the Alexa in that room be smart enough to know that the light I want turned on is in that room. Google Home is not compatible with the system so can't explore that route.

Since Bezos licked DJT’s balls, Alexa will not respond to questions regarding Trump’s criminal record.

I'm not sure how long this has been going on, but the "Connected Via" info for some (or all?) of my devices seems to rotate between devices and sometimes includes devices that don't have the capability. The main device is an Echo 4th gen (for the Thread/Matter capability) and then I have some scattered 2nd Gen Dots around the house and an Echo Flex in a bathroom.

Example situation: I recently added a TP-Link Tapo P400M dual outlet power switch in the same room as the Echo 4th Gen. Simply connected via Matter. No TP-Link app installed, etc. In the Alexa app listing for this switch, the Connected Via device name changes regularly. In fact, it'll say it is connected to things like the Dot in my garage, but I've never seen it mention the Echo 4th Gen (which is the only Matter hub in the house).

How can it be connected via devices that can't host it? Is this just an Alexa App display bug?

I've tried reinstalling the app on my phone, but that doesn't fix it. I could contact Amazon support, but previous support contacts with them tend to be: "Hmmm... no idea... send your device back" and then wait two weeks for them to send the replacement that has the same issue.

THOUGHTS?

Has anyone noticed that Alexa is suddenly giving way too long of an answer when you ask a question? I asked what temperature salmon needed to be cooked to the other night and she answered with “salmon needs to be cooked to 145°. Salmon is a fish…” and kept going before I cut her off. I feel like every time I ask her a question lately she answers the question and then continues on forever. Is there some kind of setting to stop this?

I'm sure others have this need. I have hundreds of custom voice commands for my smart home. No one in the fam seems to remember them.

It seems a printed report posted on the kitchen cork board would really help. Has anyone else needed this?

My (admittedly vague) understanding is that there is an API that could be used to generate such a report (presumably all the available actions and combinations and the various synonyms for invoking them.)

Does such an app exist? Have any hobbyists out there attempted this?

It was $25 a few weeks ago and now it is $50. Any deals to get one cheap?

I am trying to troubleshoot nursery rhyme skill on Alexa for my 4yo kid. Did enable it on Amazon by googling nursery rhymes but Alexa still has trouble playing nursery rhymes- seems like the skill is not available 🤷🏾‍♂️. Any troubleshooting or how to make Alexa play nursery rhymes would be greatly appreciated. Ty in advance

So. I have a dog who sometimes barks while I'm out of the house. From what I can tell, it's usually when someone lingers outside the front door, and he gets territorial. I currently have an Alexa skill enabled where she sends me a notification whenever he barks, which is great for my needs, but I kinda hate getting notified each time, and would prefer to have somewhere I can check periodically. I'd love if there was a graph being updated every time he barked, and I could start figuring out trends plus have somewhere to check whenever I'm out.

Does anyone know of how I might do this? thanks!

Wife and I are in the process of selling our house and we are getting our share of people who make appointments with their realtors to come and see it. Of course we cannot be at home when that happens, but I would really like to be a fly on the wall and hear what is being said about our home. Is there a way I can have Alexa record voices so that I can play it back later? Must be surreptitious, no lights or sounds from Alexa. Thanks in advance for your comments.

My wife created an announcement that rings a dinner bell and says "Two Minute Warning", letting me know that a meal is imminent. Wherever I am in the house, I hear Alexa says "From Jane", then the bell, then Alexa says "two minute warning". I don't know how she created it but she says she has to go to the Alexa app to invoke it each time. Is there a way that she can train Alexa to do it verbally?

Thanks for any insights or suggestions.

We have a bunch of routines we use and a ton of routines that are triggered by nfc stickers. (We have an nfc stickers on the back of a vinyl album that trigger alexa to play that album (or playlist for some rare records))

I hate having to scroll through all yhe record albums to find the house routine I need to tweak. Is there a way to separate them?

I know this has been asked before but when I try it never works. So I 4 accounts that I need to link to multiple Alexa’s that all are currently singed into one Amazon account. When I try to link Spotify to my account using family it makes me sign out of the others. And when I try household it doesn’t allow me to link accounts to child accounts. This confuses me because I hear carterpcs have his friends playing songs from across the us. Is there any way of me doing it?

Ich möchte in einem Raum zwei Lampen umschalten. Je nach Zustand - Lampe 1 ist an, 2 ist aus (oder anders herum), soll Lampe 1 aus und 2 angeschaltet werden (oder ander herum). Kann man das mit Alexa realisieren? Ich finde in den Routinen nur an oder aus. In shelly scenen und HA gibt es das umschalten, ich hätte dies aber gern über Alex gesteuert.

Anyone else experience this. If I ask the time, she gives me the time and some random information like "drink water instead of coffee for a healthy change!" All the time. I have "brief mode" enabled and checked all my settings. Any input or thoughts? It's so aggravating, that if it continues, I think I'll give her the boot and switch to Google.

I’m able to play all six of my custom Apple Music playlists simply by saying “Alexa, play playlist <name of playlist>”. However, whenever I say “Alexa, play playlist Favorite Songs”, it always plays the playlist “Taylor Swift’s Favorite Songs”.

Is there any specific phrasing that will play the “Favorite Songs” playlist that was introduced back in October of 2023?

Is there a switch available that can replace an existing wall switch that has various buttons that can trigger Alexa scenes? I don't want something like Flic buttons. I'm looking for something to replace the wall switch with configurable buttons that trigger scenes.

Hey everyone,

Like many of you, I find Alexa’s AI engagement pretty frustrating, especially given how far behind it feels compared to the latest AI models. I know there are some GPT-powered skills that work okay, but I was wondering if anyone here has experience with Alexa skill development and would be interested in leveraging DeepSeek-R1 to create something more advanced.

I’m fairly new to Python myself, but I’m willing to give it a shot. However, if someone with stronger coding skills is interested, I’d love to collaborate or at least brainstorm ways to make this happen.

Has anyone here built custom skills before? Any thoughts on whether integrating DeepSeek-R1 into an Alexa skill is feasible? Would love to hear from anyone with experience or interest in pushing Alexa beyond its current limits.

Let’s make Alexa useful…

Looking forward to your thoughts!