If you own an Amazon Fire TV or Fire TV Stick you can now control it with just your voice. How? By making use of Alexa, of course. There are some caveats though... You have to live in the U.S., also own an Echo device, and be willing to issue commands to an artificial intelligence.
Not content with simply selling us stuff we don't need Amazon is slowly but surely taking over our living rooms as well. The Amazon ecosystem now incorporates multiple devices, and they're gradually learning to communicate with each other. The latest pairing is your Echo and Fire TV.
Pair Your Echo With Your Fire TV
Starting today you can pair your Fire TV with your Echo and force them to play nicely together. Once paired you'll be able to issue voice commands to Alexa, and your Fire TV will comply with her orders. Pairing the devices is simple, and doing so will make your remote control redundant.
If you have one Fire TV device simply ask Alexa a question which includes the term "Fire TV". This could be, "Alexa, play The Grand Tour on Fire TV" or "Alexa, show me action movies on Fire TV". If you have more than one Fire TV device you'll need to pair them using the Alexa app instead.
According to Amazon, once paired, Alexa will "launch apps, play movies or TV shows by title, actor or genre, and control video playback with commands such as 'Alexa, play,' 'Alexa, pause,' and 'Alexa, fast forward'." You can even tell Alexa to "Go home," without needing to add "you're drunk".
Marc Whitten, Vice President of Amazon Fire TV said, "These new Fire TV features are the latest way that Alexa is making it simple for you to enjoy and control your living room entertainment. This is just the beginning and we’ll continue to create new ways to simplify the way you interact with your TV -- we can’t wait to see what customers think."
If you own an Amazon Fire TV Edition smart television you get even more voice controls to play with. After pairing your Fire TV Edition TV to your Echo you can change the volume, change channel, pause live playback, switch inputs, and even launch the on-screen channel guide.
Amazon Hates the Rest of the World
This connectivity between Amazon's various devices is actually long overdue. Still, better late than never. The only disappointing thing is that this feature only being available in the U.S. for now, with Amazon making no promises as to if and when it will be rolled out further afield.
Do you own an Amazon Fire TV or Fire TV Stick? Do you also own an Amazon Echo device? Can you see yourself controlling the former using your voice? Do you think voice commands will eventually mean we all dump our remote controls? The comments are open below...