How to Set Up an Amazon Echo Dot
Amazon Alexa seems to be many people’s best friend. If you want an inexpensive way to bring the convenience and functionality of Alexa into your home, you might consider the Echo Dot. (Note: Comparisons of Echo Dot, Echo, and Echo Pro are included in this article on home automation systems).
Happily, Echo Dot requires a very simple setup process, even if you’re a beginner in the smart home realm. In this article, we’ll walk you through the steps of getting your Echo Dot up and running in no time.
For starters, the Echo Dot really is small, like palm-sized. It’s very cute. When you open it up and pull it out of the box, it’s going to look pretty shiny.
This is plastic wrap, and you’ll want to remove it. (I don’t mean to insult anyone’s intelligence. But this is a safe space for beginners, so we’re going to cover all bases.)
Plug the power adapter into Echo Dot, and then into your power source.
Download the Amazon Alexa app.
We did run into a hiccup that was somewhat confusing. We had this screen on our app for quite a long time after we had logged in and set up, and we were a bit confused because there were no conversations to load. So, after about 20 minutes stuck on this screen, we finally just moved into “Home” on the app.
We can now talk to Alexa to play music, send messages, and turn on/off other smart devices after easily syncing them through the Alexa app’s “Add a Device” feature. When we speak the word, “Alexa,” the LED ring of lights turns blue to show that she has been alerted, then we speak the command or request.
This little Echo Dot is so fun to play with, for people of all ages. In no time at all, even our five-year-old was requesting Alexa to play her favorite songs and turn the smart light bulbs on and off, with just her voice. Her far-field technology is impressively sensitive and responsive. Truly, we couldn’t be happier with this installment into our beginning smart home efforts.