Amazon Fire TV is controlled by the remote or mobile app. Did you know that you can control Fire TV or Fire TV Stick with an Alexa speaker? Did you know that you can pair your Echo speaker with Fire TV to function as a TV speaker? There’s a lot more you can do to control Fire TV with Echo or any Alexa speaker.
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In this guide, we’ll show you how to use an Alexa speaker (Echo or Echo Dot) and control Fire TV with smart speakers.
1. How to connect Fire TV Stick to Alexa via Bluetooth
Your Alexa-powered Echo or Echo Dot speaker can work as a Bluetooth speaker for any device. If you’re looking to hear TV audio (with FireTV) on Amazon Echo, here’s how.
- First, put your Echo or Echo Dot speaker in Bluetooth pairing mode. To do this, tell Alexa “Alexa, connect my phone”.
- Now, from your Fire TV, go to Settings and go to the “Controllers and Bluetooth Devices” menu.
- Go to Other Bluetooth devices on the next screen.
- Select “Add Bluetooth Device” and wait until you see your Echo or Echo Dot speaker.
- Select your Alexa speaker (Echo Dot-TSM for Echo Dot) from Fire TV to start pairing as a Bluetooth speaker.
Once paired, you’ll hear all sounds and movie playbacks from Fire TV through your Echo or Echo Dot speaker. While connecting the Echo speaker as a Bluetooth speaker for Fire TV is simple enough, you will miss the benefits of having the Echo Dot alongside your Fire TV. You can’t control Fire TV with Alexa commands on the speaker which is a big limitation when connected as a Bluetooth speaker.
2. Select Amazon Echo as the default speaker
In case you don’t want to pair the Echo speaker via Bluetooth with Fire TV, there are alternative methods to play audio from Fire TV on Echo devices. Make sure the Fire TV and Echo or Echo Dot are using the same Amazon account, in the same room, and sharing the same WiFi network. You can then select Echo as the default speaker for the Fire TV Stick.
- Go to the Amazon Alexa app on your phone and go to the Devices tab.
- Select a room and tap your Amazon Fire TV or Fire TV Stick device.
- Tap the Speaker option.
- Under the Wi-Fi Speakers heading, choose “ Use my favorite speaker ” to use the Amazon Echo or Echo Dot in the same room as the default Fire TV speaker.
In this case, you can listen to music or play movies through the Amazon Echo speaker. Again, you won’t be able to control the Fire TV or Fire TV Stick with the Echo speaker’s Alexa commands.
3. Connect Fire TV to an Alexa device using Alexa Home Theater
The Alexa app can help you group them all together into one home theater set up alongside your Fire TV or Fire TV Stick. You can create your own virtual home theater setup and play movie sound on all speakers simultaneously with surround effects.
- Open the Amazon Alexa app on your phone and go to the Devices tab.
- Tap the “+” button in the top right corner of the app.
- Select the “Combine Speakers” option from the menu.
- Choose “Home Theater” from the next window.
- Select your Echo or Echo Dot speakers to connect. Make sure the speakers selected are the same models and the same generation to create a home theater with multiple speakers. If you have a third and fourth-generation Echo Dot, they can’t combine together to make a home theater.
- Tap Next after selecting your speakers and choose a name for your home theater setup.
- From the next screen, add your home cinema setup to an Alexa group in your home and tap Save.
You are now ready to use Alexa as a speaker. Your Fire TV or Fire TV Stick and Echo speakers are combined together in a virtual home theater. You can start driving any of the Alexa speakers and play movies or music on all the speakers combined at the same time.
4. Correct home theater sound with Alexa Home Theater
All Echo and Fire TV speakers are connected wirelessly, unlike the conventional home theater setup. Therefore, any kind of latency in connectivity will cause audio delay on devices. If you’ve just set up a home theater with Amazon Alexa and Fire TV speakers and start having audio sync issues while watching movies, here’s how to fix it.
- Open Settings in your Fire TV and go to the Display and Sound option.
- Go to the Home Theater System option.
- Select Lip Sync Tuning from the next screen.
- The following window will guide you in fixing audio-video sync by moving a cursor on the screen using the Fire TV remote.
5. How to control TV with Alexa with Echo Speaker
Instead of controlling your Fire TV with the remote, you can use Alexa’s voice commands on the Echo speaker. How cool is that? Once your Amazon Echo or Echo Dot speaker is connected to the Amazon Fire TV or Fire TV Stick, you can use Alexa’s commands to control and navigate the Fire TV. Here are some of the commands you should try.
- “Alexa, turn on the TV”
- “Alexa, turn off the TV”
- “Alexa, go to home”
- “Alexa, go to Settings”
- “Alexa, open the menu“
- “Alexa, mute the TV”
- “Alexa, scroll down”
- “Alexa, show my library”
Apart from these, there are many Alexa commands you could use to control the Amazon Fire TV without touching the remote.
6. Search for music, movies, or TV shows on Fire TV with Alexa
Whether you want to play your favorite movies or TV shows on Fire TV, Alexa can do it with one simple command. You can search for music, movies, TV shows, channels, and more on your Amazon Fire TV Stick with Alexa. Simply activate Alexa on your Echo speaker and use the commands below to search for titles.
- “Alexa, search for Minions on Netflix”
- Alexa, search for The Boys on Prime Video “
- “Alexa, search for Don Williams on Spotify”
- “Alexa, search for Boney M. on Apple Music”
- “Alexa, show me new movies”
7. Play Amazon Echo Music on Fire TV
If you have music services linked to your Alexa account, you can stream music directly to your Fire TV using the Echo speaker. All you have to do is command Alexa on your Echo or Echo Dot speaker to start playing music.
- “Alexa, play [song name] on Spotify”
- “Alexa, play [song name] on Apple Music”
- “Alexa, play playlist on Spotify”
- “Alexa, play playlist on Apple Music”
- “Alexa, play the radio [radio name] on Apple Music”
- “Alexa, congratulations on this song”
- “Alexa, skip this song”
8. Play movies or TV shows on Prime Video or Netflix
We’ve already seen how to search for movie titles and TV shows on Fire TV with Alexa. Not only search, but you can also play movies, web series, and TV shows on your TV with Alexa. Here are some example commands.
- “Alexa, play [movie name]”
- “Alexa, play [movie-name / show-name] on Netflix”
- “Alexa, play [movie-name / show-name] on Prime Video”
- “Alexa, play [movie-name / show-name] on Disney Plus”
9. Controls for playing movies with Alexa
When watching movies or TV shows on Amazon Fire TV, you no longer need to hold down the remote button to skip scenes or jump to certain scenes. Alexa is ready to do all of this.
- “ Alexa, pause”
- “Alexa, play”
- “Alexa, skip / next episode”
- “Alexa, fast forward”
- “Alexa, skip 3 minutes”
- “Alexa, jump at 5:30”
- “Alexa, rewind 30 seconds”
- “Alexa, look from the start”
These simple commands are equivalent to holding down buttons on the Fire TV remote, but with greater accuracy.
10. How to open apps on Fire TV with Alexa
Opening apps on Fire TV is part of the standard TV controls. However, this may require some attention. You can open any app on your Fire TV with Alexa commands, and here are some examples.
- “Open Silk Browser”
- “Open [app-name ]”
11. How to Watch Live TV on Fire TV
If you have access to live TV on Fire TV, use certain Alexa commands to watch live TV streams. You can also change channels, play your favorite channel, control playback, and more with Pocket Live – Live Italian TV on Fire TV.
- “Alexa, go to live TV”
- “Alexa, look at [channel-name] on [app-name]”
- “Alexa, go to the channel guide”
- “Alexa, show my favorite channels”
12. Show your Fire TV to-do list
What we’ve seen so far involved media playback and playback controls on the Fire TV with Alexa speaker. In addition to controlling movies and music on Fire TV, you can do a lot more. Suppose you have a to-do list. Your Fire TV can show your to-do list or any other list with a single command.
- “Alexa, show my to-do list”
- “Alexa, show my shopping list”
- “Alexa, show [list-name]”
13. Show weather forecast on Fire TV
You may have already tried asking Alexa what the weather is like today ?. When prompted, the Echo or Echo Dot speaker responds to current weather conditions in your area. How about showing the same on the TV screen? If you have connected your Alexa speaker and Fire TV, you can ask Alexa to show the weather forecast.
- “Alexa, what’s the weather like?”
- “Alexa, what’s the weather in [place]?”
14. Watch the security cameras on the Fire Stick
If your front door security camera or garage door camera is supported by Alexa, there is a smart way to see them live. The feature was initially only available to Echo Show or Echo Spot users. However, now if you have an Amazon Echo Dot or Echo speaker connected to your Fire TV, it can show the front door security camera footage on the big screen.
- “Alexa, show my front door camera”
- “Alexa, show my garage camera”
- “Alexa, show my camera in the yard”
- “Alexa, show [camera-name]”
There may be a bit of a delay in showing the camera footage on the Fire TV. Otherwise, it works perfectly and helps you see the whole outside area on your big screen TV.
To conclude
There’s no need to lift the remote when you have Amazon Echo or Echo Dot speakers along with your Fire TV. You can control, play and navigate Fire TV with Alexa speakers. What’s more, you can also make them work together as a home theater. Plus, if you own a home theater speaker system with Alexa, there’s an unlimited range of things to do with the Fire TV.
