- #HOW TO USE FIRESTICK WITH ALEXA VOICE REMOTE UPGRADE#
- #HOW TO USE FIRESTICK WITH ALEXA VOICE REMOTE TV#
You can search for shows, play and skip through videos and also launch Alexa mini-apps which Amazon calls 'skills', of which there are now around 7,000. Questions don't need to be prefaced with 'Alexa' as they do with the Echo version of the service, but it doesn't seem to mind if you say it anyway.Įven when I accidentally said 'Alexa' at the start of a request, that didn't trigger the Echo smart speaker that was also in the room, which was a bonus. The Fire version of the Alexa service is launched by holding down the microphone button on the remote control and making a request.
#HOW TO USE FIRESTICK WITH ALEXA VOICE REMOTE TV#
The Alexa remote control is the most interesting new feature of the Fire TV Stick, allowing you to control the streaming device using voice commands. The home page leads with an advert for Amazon's own video services, but it's not too intrusive.
But it's really designed for those marathon streamed box-set binge-watching sessions. The Fire Stick is still interesting even if you don't sign up for a streaming service: in the UK you get the BBC's iPlayer and the ITV and Channel 5 online services (although not the range of TV that you'd get with something like a Freeview box). While the Fire Stick can't do much about the quality of the display, it does make my old TV smart enough to prolong its life by a year or two, perhaps even longer, by allowing it to access video streaming services like Amazon's Prime Video and other services like Netflix and Spotify. So you might not buy a new TV, but end up spending the money on streaming services instead - a smart business model for Amazon. But to me the idea behind something like the Fire Stick is different in that it potentially redirects spending away from new hardware (TVs) and into buying content, by encouraging users to sign up for something like Amazon Prime.
#HOW TO USE FIRESTICK WITH ALEXA VOICE REMOTE UPGRADE#
New technology often kicks off an upgrade cycle - you buy a Blu-ray player and then decide you need a better TV to watch films on, for example.
The Fire TV Stick is an interesting example of the effect of turning dumb machines into smarter ones: the TV on which I tested the Fire Stick is at least seven years old, and wasn't top-of-the-range even then. You may not think you need a voice-activated speaker and a cloud-powered digital assistant in your home, but Amazon's Echo and Alexa may persuade you otherwise. Amazon Echo review: Alexa is the first digital assistant that is actually helpful
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