How to Pair Your Smartphone to Your Amazon Echo | Dramel Notes

The Amazon Echo is a more than capable speaker with room-filling sound; as such it only makes sense to pair your smartphone, tablet, or other Bluetooth-enabled device to it in order to super charge your smartphone’s sound system.

Why Do I Want To Do This?

Although the Echo does a fantastic job with Amazon’s native Prime Music service as well as the available additional services such as Pandora, iHeartRadio, and TuneIn, there are some popular services currently left out in the cold like Spotify, and so on.

Even though the Echo can’t natively play all the services out there that doesn’t mean you can’t use the Echo for playback. Thanks to Bluetooth integration you can pair the Echo with your mobile device just like you would pair it with a plain old Bluetooth speaker.

Once paired it operates exactly like a regular Bluetooth speaker with, of course, the addition of the handy voice commands for volume adjustment, starting and stopping playback, and so on.

It is worth noting there is one feature missing from the Echo that is commonly found on larger table-top style Bluetooth speakers: there’s no mechanism for using it is a speakerphone and if you make or receive calls with your smartphone while paired with the Echo the calls will not be transferred over to the speaker. Likewise text messages can’t be read to the Echo nor will on-device notifications be passed to the Echo.

Pairing Your Device Via Voice Commands

The biggest draw of the Amazon Echo is the voice control so it’s only natural that you can initiate the pairing process with your voice. Before you proceed make sure you have the device you wish to pair on hand and that you know where the Bluetooth settings menu is for your device. We’ll be pairing an iPhone with the Echo so if you have an iPhone or iPad you can follow directly along, otherwise adjust them to fit your device.

To start the pairing process make sure Bluetooth is enabled on your mobile device and then issue the following command:

Alexa, pair.

Alexa will respond by telling you that she is ready to pair and that you should go look at the Bluetooth settings on your device. On the iPhone you’ll find the settings in Settings -> Bluetooth. There you’ll see an entry for the Echo like so:

Select the entry to complete the pairing process.

Pairing Your Device Via The Alexa App

In addition to initiating the pairing process via voice command you can also open up the Amazon Alexa application on your smartphone and initiate the pairing process.

Tap on the menu icon in the upper left corner of the application and then, from the slide out menu, select “Settings”. Select the entry for your Amazon Echo.

Within the settings menu for the Echo select, as seen above, the Bluetooth entry.

Here you can select “Pairing Mode” to begin the pairing process or, if you need to remove devices from the Echo then select “Clear” to wipe the Bluetooth pairing roster.

Once you’ve selected “Pairing Mode” you will need to confirm the pairing, like in the previous section of the tutorial, in the Bluetooth settings menu of your device.

Using And Reconnecting Your Paired Device

After you’ve paired your device you can immediately being using the Echo as a Bluetooth speaker for any streaming service, podcast, etc. on your mobile device. When you leave the area your device and the Echo will disconnect. When you return to the speaker in the future it will recall your pairing and you may reconnect your device with the command:

Alexa, connect.

The command always reconnects the Echo with the most recently paired device; if your Echo is not pairing with the device you’re currently using you may need to repair it with your Echo to resolve any connectivity issues.

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Have a pressing question about your Echo? Shoot us an email at ask@howtogeek.com and we’ll do our best to answer it.

 

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How to Use Parental Controls and Child Profiles on an Amazon Fire Tablet | Dramel Notes

Amazon’s Fire Tablet offers both parental controls for quickly locking down a device as well as fine-grained “child profiles”. These child (or teen) profiles use the Kindle FreeTime feature, which is perhaps the most sophisticated parental-control solution for a tablet operating system

Fire OS is actually quite compelling if you’re looking for powerful parental controls and child-friendly features. It’s here that Amazon’s hardware really stands out on more than just price.

Parental Controls vs. Child Profiles

You can lock down your device in one of two ways. There are parental controls, and there are child profiles that use Kindle FreeTime. Both are intended for locking down your device and restricting what your kids can do, but they take different approaches.

Parental Controls: Enable parental controls and the Fire table will block access to a variety of things — the web browser, email, contacts, calendars, social sharing, the camera, Amazon’s stores, purchases, video playback, different types of content, Wi-Fi settings, and location services. You can choose which of these you want to block.

This doesn’t require you to set up any other account. Effectively, it’s a restriction placed on the current account that can’t be removed unless you know the password. You can just activate parental controls, set a parental control password, and access to sensitive content can be restricted. You can then hand the tablet to a kid and let them use it as they wish.

Child Profiles: Rather than just activating parental controls, you can get more sophisticated controls by creating up to four “child profiles” or “teen profiles”. You’d create a different profile for each child who will use the device. These use Amazon’s Kindle FreeTime feature, and you can choose which apps, eBooks, and other content you want to share. You can also  change a variety of other settings — for example, setting a “bed time” for each child after which they can’t use the tablet, setting limits on how much they can use the tablet for different purposes, or requiring them to use educational content before they can play games.

Enable Parental Controls

To activate parental controls, open the “Settings” app — swipe down from the top of the screen and tap “Settings.” Tap the “Parental controls” option under Personal. Activate the “Parental Controls” slider and you’ll be prompted to create a parental control password. This password is necessary for enabling, disabling, or configuring parental controls. You can change it from this screen later — assuming you know the current password.

Use the other options on the screen to control access to the web browser, email, contacts, calendars, social sharing, the camera, Amazon’s stores, videos, other types of content, Wi-Fi settings, and location services settings.

While parental controls are enabled, you’ll see a lock icon on the notification bar at the top of the screen. To disable them, pull down the notification shade at the top of the screen, tap the “Parental controls are enabled” option, and then enter your password.

You could leave parental controls enabled except when you want to use the tablet yourself, ensuring your kids can’t make purchases, mess with your email, watch age-inappropriate videos, or browse the web — depending on which options you choose.

Create Child Profiles

Open the Settings screen and tap “Profiles & Family Library” under Personal to create new profiles and manage existing ones. This uses your configured “Family” and works along with Kindle Family Sharing.

Tap the “Add a child profile” option and you’ll be able to add one or more profiles. A “child profile” will get a simplified, content-centric interface, while a “teen profile” will get Amazon’s standard Fire tablet interface.

You’ll be able to choose which content you want to share, and you can tap the child’s name later to add more controls. For example, you could set up daily time limits, choosing when the child is allowed to use the tablet and for how long they can do different things on it.

From the lock screen, you or anyone else with the tablet can tap the profile picture at the top-right corner of the screen and select a new user to switch users. You can also pull down the quick settings menu while signed in, tap the profile picture, and select a new user account.

To view information about how your child has been using the tablet, you can open the “FreeTime” app.

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Amazon will likely continue adding new parental controls to Fire OS. It’s ahead of every other mobile operating system when it comes to kid-friendly features and parental controls. It’s especially ahead of Apple’s iOS, which still doesn’t offer multiple user accounts or profiles on a single iPad.

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