Pick up any Amazon Echo smart speaker or display as part of your Alexa smart home setup, and it does, of course, come with its own built-in audio output—so you can hear Alexa’s responses, play your tunes and podcasts, and so on. However, these integrated speakers aren’t necessarily in the top bracket in terms of audio quality.
Sure, the $199.99 Amazon Echo Studio can give the best wireless speakers some serious competition, this isn’t the case for the whole range. Take the new $79.99 Amazon Echo Spot for example: A compact and useful little bedside smart device, but one that only offers a 1.73-inch front-firing speaker.
That’s where Bluetooth speakers come in. As well as connecting to an Echo as a Bluetooth speaker, you can also hook up these Amazon devices to other Bluetooth speakers to output their audio—Bluetooth speakers that are bigger and more expensive, and offer more oomph in terms of the sound they can produce.
While this won’t make all that much of a difference when it comes to podcasts or replies from Alexa, it’s definitely worth considering if you play a lot of music through your Echo speaker. Here’s how to do it.
Pairing an Amazon Echo to a Bluetooth speaker
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To begin with, obviously, you’re going to need an Amazon Echo and a Bluetooth speaker. When it comes to the Bluetooth speaker, you also need to know how to get it in pairing mode: The process will depend on the speaker, but it often involves pushing a button somewhere—if you’re not sure, check online or read through the documentation that came with the speaker.
With the Bluetooth speaker in pairing mode, you’re then ready to get your Echo speaker connected. Open up the Alexa app for Android or iOS (which you would’ve used to set up the speaker in the first place), then open the Devices tab. Tap on your Echo speaker, then tap the gear icon to bring up its settings.
Choose Bluetooth Devices and then Pair A New Device, and follow the instructions on screen. Depending on the Bluetooth speaker you’re using, you may have to confirm the pairing with another button press on the speaker itself. Once the connection is made, Alexa will tell you the link has been established.
Managing the speaker connections
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Every audio output from the Echo speaker will now be routed through the Bluetooth speaker, whether it’s answers from Alexa or music. If, for whatever reason, this doesn’t happen, check that your Bluetooth speaker is powered on, choose your Echo from the Devices tab in the Alexa app, and then tap the speaker to reconnect.
After the connection has been established for the first time, you can use voice commands to control it too: Try “Alexa, disconnect” to disconnect the Bluetooth speaker (and go back to using the built-in speaker for your audio), or “Alexa, connect” to link the Bluetooth speaker and the Echo again.
If you go back to the Bluetooth Devices entry in the settings menu for your Amazon Echo speaker, you’ll see all of the devices that have been paired. Tap the small arrow next to any speaker to connect to it again, or to tell the Echo to forget about the Bluetooth connection (so you’ll need to go through the pairing process again if you ever need to reconnect).
