Amazon Echo is the most popular smart speaker in the world right now. With Echo, Amazon has made the idea of a speaker with a smart assistant built-in mainstream. With Echo range of speakers, you can do a lot of things but listening to music tops the list. Now, the e-commerce giant is bringing the ability to listen to podcasts on the smart speaker.
Also Read: Amazon Echo (4th-gen) review: refreshing design, improved sound
Podcast statistics from Edison Research and Triton Digital notes that weekly podcast listeners tune in an average of 6 podcasts per week in the US. With podcasts catching on in India, Amazon is now bringing the ability to listen to podcasts via Spotify and Apple Podcasts on Echo devices in the country.
How to play podcasts on Amazon Echo speakers
You can now play podcast from Spotify or Apple Podcasts on Amazon Echo
If you have been using Amazon Echo with Spotify for sometime now then you might wonder how this is a new feature. If you are playing a podcast on your Spotify, the ability to cast it to your Amazon Echo speaker was already available. However, the ability to listen to podcasts is now becoming a native feature for Echo users.
Amazon is adding support for Spotify and Apple Podcasts to play podcasts on the Echo smart speaker. The real deal is that you can use your voice command to play the podcast of your choice. You can say “Alexa, play the Michelle Obama podcast on Spotify” or “Alexa, play ‘On Purpose with Jay Shetty’ on Apple Podcasts“. The podcasts will then start playing through the platform of your choice.
How to enable Spotify and Apple Podcasts on Echo speakers
- Open Amazon Alexa app on your phone
- Tap on More at the bottom row of options and click on Settings
- In Settings, scroll down to Alexa Preferences and click on Music
Amazon has added support for playing podcast through two popular services
- Click on “Link New Service”
- Now, you will be shown all available services including Spotify and Apple Podcasts
- Select the platform of your choice and click on “Enable to Use”
You will need to enable Spotify or Apple Podcasts skill and link your account to get started
- This will open the account linking page where you can login with your credentials
- Once you sign in, you will see a message saying “Your account has been successfully linked”
- Click on Close
Click on Close and ask Alexa to start playing your favourite podcast
Now, you are all set to play podcasts from Spotify or Apple Podcasts on your Amazon Echo smart speaker. You can also ask Alexa to fast forward 30 seconds or skip to next episode.
These commands work in both English and Hindi. It seems Amazon has added only support for these two podcast players for now. But we could see support for Overcast, Stitcher, Pocket Casts and other services in the future.