Most top-rated smart speakers can set timers, control smart home devices, and play music, among other things. But if you're a visual person, Amazon's Echo Show lineup adds an interactive touch screen to display photos, song details, or video calls.
Amazon has an Echo Show for every occasion, from the 10-inch version with a camera that can follow you around the room to the diminutive Echo Show 5. Updated versions of the Show 5 and the mid-size Show 8, plus a kid-specific Echo Show 5, arrive in early June.
Sound quality notwithstanding, an Echo Show offers some unique advantages over its audio-only counterparts, including video conferences with people who have their own Echo Show or the Alexa app.
Many of the tips below require the Alexa mobile app on your smartphone (snag it for iOS(Opens in a new window) or Android(Opens in a new window)). It's how you control a number of settings for Amazon Echo devices, whether they have a screen or not. (At the very least, you need access to the website(Opens in a new window).) Once your Echo Show is set up, read on for some tricks that make this touch-screen smart speaker such a treat.
Stop (or Start) the Background
To change the background imagery on your Echo Show, open the Alexa app, tap the hamburger menu in the lower right, and go to Settings > Device Settings. Find your Echo Show and tap Photo Display. Here, you can link the Echo Show to your phone's photos, Amazon Photos, or a Facebook account. You can also toggle on "Daily Memories" or "This Day" for highlights; manually pick only a handful of pics; or select just one pic. Say "Alexa, go to settings" (or swipe down from the top and tap Settings), then tap Home & Clock> Clock & Photo Display > Personal Photos > Background and check off the linked services you want to use.
Prep Your Silk Settings
Silk is the browser Amazon bundles on most Fire devices. (Amazon used to offer Firefox as an option, but the deal died in April.) So if you'll be browsing any websites, make sure Silk is set to do your bidding. Go to Settings > Device Options > Web Options > Browser > Browser Settings. Silk can scale web pages, save passwords, offer safe browsing from dangerous sites, and clear browsing data like history and cookies. Under Advanced, you can also change the search engine used from Bing to Google, Yahoo, or DuckDuckGo.
Watch YouTube Via Silk
There's no native YouTube app on the Echo Show devices, but you can watch YouTube videos by going into the Silk browser ("Alexa, open Silk") and loading m.youtube.com (the mobile site). Tap the bookmark icon in the toolbar up top to bookmark it.
Watch More Streaming Services
It used to be the only native video streamer on the Echo Show was, naturally, Amazon Prime Video. Now there's support for more (at least for now). For example, say "Alexa, launch Netflix" to get the app on screen. I couldn't get Hulu to work, but found YouTube (via the browser), Food Network Kitchen, RedBull TV, and Tubi.
Equalize the Sound
Like any good speaker, the Echo Show has an equalizer that lets you adjust the level of bass, mid-range, and treble. You'll find it by going to Settings > Sounds > Equalizer on the Echo Show. Or go to Devices > [your Echo Show] > [gear icon] > Audio Settings. Then drag the sliders to where you want them. But you don't really need to visit the sliders. Simply say "Alexa, turn up the treble" or "Alexa, turn down the bass," etc. And if it sounds terrible, yell "Alexa, reset the equalizer." (The equalizer is also available for Echo devices without a screen, just use the voice commands or the mobile app.)
Karaoke Night With the Stars
Got Amazon Music? You do if you have Amazon Prime, meaning you have access to about 2 million songs to play on your Echo Show. (Pay extra for Amazon Music Unlimited for more than 70 million tunes.) What's really great is the majority of those songs have lyrics you can view in real time as the music plays, line by line, right on the Echo Show screen. Tap the screen and you get controls for pausing, skipping back and forth in an album or playlist, setting the list to randomize, or putting it on repeat. (Sorry, lyrics don't come up with rival music-streaming services like Pandora or Spotify.)
Don't Be Dim, Set the Brightness
Swipe down from the top of the Echo screen for quick access to Settings and the Do Not Disturb (DND) function (or say "Alexa, do not disturb"). Using that dims everything for a while, and it won't light up when you move in front of it. More importantly, there is a slider for setting the screen brightness on a level of one to 10. This is the only way to do it. If you say "Alexa, set brightness to 10," she'll just tell you to swipe down on the screen.
Set Up Do Not Disturb
Do Not Disturb (DND) can be activated with a quick swipe down, or say "Alexa, activate do not disturb" or "Alexa, don't disturb me." DND stops Alexa itself from disturbing you, and prevents incoming video calls from people you know who also have an Alexa-based device.
The smart thing to do is schedule a regular set of DND hours. In the Alexa mobile app, go to Settings > Device Settings and find your Echo Show. Select the gear icon on the upper right, then Do Not Disturb > Scheduled. Set a start and end time. That'll keep callers from dropping in on you via Alexa during your off hours, and dim the screen during that time as well.
Turn Off the Screen
Want a brief respite from the glow of your Echo Show's tiny little monitor? You don't have to power it off completely. Say, "Alexa, turn off your screen" and she'll go blank. Muttering the wake word or touching the screen again will bring it back. (Simply using the on-screen dimmer slide control doesn't blank the screen entirely.) Amazon has some other tips in the video above.
Get on the Trailer
Pretty much any movie trailer you can think of is available to watch on the Echo Show, and all you have to do is say "Alexa, show me the trailer for movie [TITLE]." It does get picky sometimes on the title; Saw: Spiral didn't work, but Spiral: Saw did.
Restrict Access to Search and Video
Got a kid or two at home using the Echo Show to watch or search for questionable material? Block 'em. On the Echo Show go to Settings > Restrict Access. From there you can restrict access to the following:
Amazon Photos (Note: This will prevent the photos from working as your slideshow background.)
Movie Trailers
Web browser (blocks all searches)
Web Video Search (You can turn on a SafeSearch to limit mature content.)
Video Providers
Note that some of the above changes may require you to enter your Amazon password, and the two-factor authentication code, if you have that enabled. You can use the Alexa mobile app on your smartphone to activate Amazon Kids (previously called FreeTime) to turn on parental controls that go even farther by setting time limits and even pauses devices on the little tykes.
Silence Is Golden With 'Tap to Alexa'
There's a chance you don't really want to talk to your Alexa device. On an Echo Show with a screen, you have the option to set up "Tap to Alexa"—a finger-pressing-a-button icon that is always on the screen (you can move it around). Tap and you get a screen with options for typing in a quick question, checking the weather, setting a timer, getting news, setting an alarm, checking the shopping list, and more—you manage what is on the screen. It's great for checking the Echo Show in the dark of night when it might disturb someone to talk—or if you use the Show as an alarm clock by the bed.
To place the Tap to Alexa button, go to Settings > Accessibility > Tap to Alexa. To manage the Tap to Alexa screen, touch the icon and click the Manage button. If you click Add New, you can type in something you would frequently ask Alexa—such as launching Echo Show skills—and place it as a button so you don't have to repeat yourself.
Calling and Messaging Without Speech
Similar to Tap to Alexa, Communication Without Speech displays a transcription of any messages left on your Alexa device by your contacts or family members, and allows you to send messages to them by typing on your Echo Show screen. Turn it on under Settings > Accessibility > Communication Without Speech.
You can also access your contacts on screen via the three-dot vertical ellipsis menu that appears on the home screen. If you don't like the typing—which is awkward as can be on an Echo Show—there's a microphone icon front and center so you can say something to be transcribed.
Naughty words get censored on screen by the Echo Show (but you can always see the original curse-laden messages in the mobile Alexa app on your phone).
Make the Call
Of course, making a "call" between Amazon Echo devices is simple. Say "Alexa, call [NAME]" and use the name of a pre-set contact. That works for voice calls on any Echo and video calls with an Echo Show. However, the Show will try to default to video if both people have a screen, so say "Alexa, video on/off" as needed, or look for the on/off button on the screen to toggle video off and make it a voice-only chat.
For the best security, slide over the integrated camera cover found on most Echo Shows, so you can see them but they can't see you. End a call with "Alexa, hang up," or click the end button in the mobile Alexa app.
How to Skype on the Echo Show
Skype on the Echo Show is not really a skill—which is what Amazon calls the "apps" for Alexa. You link a Skype account(Opens in a new window) to Alexa via the mobile app (go to Settings > Communication > Skype to activate it). Then you say "Alexa, Skype [contact name]," or ask for a phone number "on Skype." If it's a video call, it should work with the Echo Show to the recipient on Skype.
Take a Selfie
This one's easy. Say "Alexa, take a selfie" and after a warning and countdown from three, the front camera of the Echo Show takes a shot of you, including a preview on screen, then saves it to Amazon Photos.
However, there are more options than that. You can say "Alexa, share this photo" to put it into an album in Amazon Photos. Or wait and it'll bring up the Photo Booth, so you can take another single shot, a short video, or a 4-shot like you'd get in a booth at the carnival. Then view the Photo Booth Album, which shows every image taken with the Echo Show in Amazon Photos.
Scan Barcodes
The camera on the front of the Echo Show will not only take your pic, it can scan barcodes for products. Say "Alexa, scan" and line up the barcode to the one on the screen. If the product is in the Amazon catalog, it'll be added to your shopping list.
Let Show Read the Screen
One of the accessibility functions(Opens in a new window) of the Echo Show is the VoiceView Screen Reader—it makes the show read aloud everything that appears on the screen. You can turn it on several different ways(Opens in a new window), but the easiest method is to say "Alexa, Turn on [or off] VoiceView. Go into Settings > Accessibility > VoiceView Screen Reader to adjust settings. (Once it's on, you'll need to start double-tapping the screen to get things to happen.) Options include setting reading speed, default volumes for speech vs sounds, how much should be echoed back to you as you type on the on-screen keyboard, and all the actions you can have the show perform with different gestures using multiple fingers.
Magnify for Readability
Go to Settings > Accessibility > Screen Magnifier and turn it on. After that, you can triple-tap the screen to magnify what you see. You can then do the 2-finger pinch or release to zoom in or out.
Bring Something for Show and Tell
Amazon is great at identifying products—all the better to sell you something. If you or someone you know has bad eyesight and can't tell, for example, what kind of canned goods they might be opening, Echo Show can help with Show and Tell. Say "Alexa, what am I holding" and hold up the goods in front of the camera about a foot away. Echo Show may direct you to line it up correctly or turn the product. Then, if it can tell what the product is, it'll tell you aloud.
Do a Full Reset
Echo Show giving you trouble? First, do the whole "unplug it and plug it back in" routine. You can also turn off an Echo Show by holding down the Mute button for a few seconds. (Power it back up again by holding down the mute button again.)
If that doesn't help, nuke it, so to speak, by setting it back to the factory settings and starting fresh. Say "Alexa, go to settings" and tap Device Options > Reset to Factory Defaults. This kills all the settings you've put in place, from the name of your Echo Show to any linked accounts. You'll have to go through the setup all over again.
You can also do this in the Alexa mobile app. Go to the Settings > Device Settings > find your Echo Show and click the gear icon > Factory Reset.
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