While your Alexa-enabled device (like an Echo smart speaker or Echo Show smart display) can stream music and other content from the internet, that’s not the only way to get it to play audio. For example, you might want to stream music or podcasts directly from your phone.
To do that, you’ll need to connect your phone to the Echo device. It’s easy to do, and once set up, you can easily stream audio from your phone to Alexa as if it were an ordinary Bluetooth speaker.
Of course, your Alexa device needs to be set up properly using the Alexa app on your phone. If you haven’t done that yet, install the Alexa app for iPhone or Android and then use it to set up your speaker. The app will walk you through every step, including connecting to your home Wi-Fi network and logging into your Amazon account.
Once you’re set up, you can connect other phones to your Alexa device for streaming. Here’s how.
How to connect your phone to an Echo or Echo Show device
On the phone you want to connect, go to Bluetooth settings and make sure Bluetooth is turned on—usually, you’ll simply need to make sure the toggle is swiped to the right.
Open the Alexa app on the phone you used to set up your Echo and then tap Devices at the bottom of the screen.
At the top of the page, tap Echo & Alexa.
Choose the device you want to connect your phone to. You might see a few options if you have Echo devices scattered throughout the house. You can choose any Amazon Echo device, but be aware that some third-party Alexa devices may not include Bluetooth, so you won’t be able to connect to them.
In the Bluetooth Connections section, tap Connect a device.
When the phone you want to connect appears in the list of devices, tap it and allow Alexa to connect to the phone.
Once connected, you can stream music and other audio to the Echo device as if it were a standard portable Bluetooth speaker—just select the music on your phone and it should play on your Echo device. And in the future, anytime your phone comes into range of the speaker, it should connect automatically, so you don’t need to do anything special to pair or connect.
If you ever find that your phone hasn’t connected to your Echo device, you can say “Alexa, connect to my phone,” and it should search for and connect to the phone automatically.
Next, find out which Amazon Echo is right for you.
