Finally, to return to the Fire TV home screen from any app, say “Alexa, go home.” Fire TV Cube controls Plus, this speaker's designed to communicate with other smart devices in your Sonos home ecosystem, which is cool. Spread audio throughout your house or a larger room for an improved sound. You can pair it with a compatible Sonos soundbar for enhanced surround sound. Since the speaker supports Dolby Atmos, it can bring a more immersive feel to Dolby Atmos Music found on different streaming platforms like Apple Music. If you don't need all these extra bells and whistles, you may prefer one of the more affordable models on our list, but if you want the best of the best, this speaker's the way to go.

To turn on notifications, open the Alexa app and select to Settings, then Notifications, then Shopping Notifications and toggle it on. Your Echo speakers will light up yellow when you have new notifications. Find movies in nearby theaters: "Alexa, what movies are playing?" or, "Alexa, what action movies are playing tonight?" Presuming you're using something with a built-in speaker, you'll also want to keep the volume a little lower if you expect yourself to be heard while there's music playing. That's not science, it's common sense. Keeping the Alexa microphones away from sources of other noise, like open windows or moving air from a fan, can also help. The Fire TV also supports searching for content, but the results here are mixed. Unless you have a Fire TV Cube (more on that shortly), you can’t scroll through the results without a proper remote, and some apps don’t support searching at all. Here are some examples of voice search commands that work well: Play music on other (or multiple) Alexa devices: "Alexa, play [artist/album/song/genre] in the living room" or, "Alexa, play [music] everywhere."Now, when you power on your connected speaker, it will play the audio would normally play from the Echo when you ask Alexa to play music. Create a shopping list: "Alexa, add eggs to my shopping list" or, "Alexa, I need to buy laundry detergent." While we're on the subject, we'd absolutely recommend you disable Alexa voice purchasing if you live in a multi-person household or ever have mischevious visitors. Sure, this can be pin-protected, but that's a pin you recite with your voice, which is fundamentally stupid. Just switch it off in Settings > Account Settings > Voice Purchasing and leave it off forever. Alexa troubleshooting: Multi room madness If you have traditional TV service from Comcast, AT&T U-Verse, DirecTV, Dish, Spectrum, Cox, Verizon Fios, Centurylink Prism, Frontier Fios, or Mediacom, the Fire TV Cube can tune into live channels as well. To set this up, head to Settings > Equipment Control > Manage Equipment > Add Equipment, and then select Cable or Satellite. Once it’s set up, try these commands:

Here is a selection of the commands you can use for controlling your smart home, although there are dozens more. Alexa, switch inputs” or “Alexa, switch to HDMI one.” (The latter command might not work with all televisions.)

Alexa commands for Fire TV and Fire TV Stick

Drop In on another user (requires the other user to allow you to Drop In anytime): "Alexa, drop in on [name]." Your other option is to completely reset your Echo. If you have a first-gen Echo or Echo Dot, there's a pin-hole at the bottom with a reset button; poke something in there, hold it down, and it'll restart like new.

As its name implies, the Sonos Era 100 is a smaller and more affordable cousin to the Sonos Era 300, making it a great alternative for more wallet-conscious shoppers. This smart speaker has built-in Alexa support, so you can control it with your voice. Its sleek and simple design is easy to integrate into any living room, and you can even pair it up with other devices in your existing Sonos ecosystem to bring the party to other rooms of your home. Unfortunately for cord-cutters, Alexa can’t switch to live channels from an antenna. At best, you can switch to the antenna input, then reach for the TV remote if you need to change channels. DVR controls Jared Newman/TechHive Activate a scene (limited to Control4, Insteon, Lutron Caséta Wireless, Philips Hue, SmartThings and Wink): "Alexa, turn on Movie Time" or, "Alexa, turn on Bedtime." For now, the Cortana skill is limited because it's a public preview of what the full integration will be in the future. Search using Alexa commands Play a song based on context: "Alexa, play the latest Avett Brothers album" or, "Alexa, play that song that goes 'Gotta gotta be down, because I want it all.'"A purple light means Alexa has failed to connect to your Wi-Fi network. Either it has the wrong credentials, or your network is down. Try restarting the Alexa device, unless everything else in your house has lost connectivity, in which case it's time to fiddle with your router. Step 4: Open the Alexa app, go to Settings and select Skills. Search for the Sony’s TV skill and enable it. Some set-top boxes, such as the TiVo Roamio shown here, can be controlled with Alexa voice commands. Next step is to head into the app, find any multi room groups you might have previously created, and delete them. If you haven't yet created any, that's OK - but we've found that misfiring multi room always needs a fresh start if you've used it before.

Make an announcement: "Alexa, announce it's dinner time," "Alexa, broadcast it's time to go" or, "Alexa, tell everyone good night."

Other places you can access Alexa

The Fire TV Cube even has a built-in infrared blaster, which can directly control your television, sound system, and certain cable boxes. The initial setup process should handle the pairing, but you can set up equipment again through Settings > Equipment Control > Set Up Equipment. Then, try some of these commands: