So you can listen to music or YouTube videos with Alexa and the Amazon Echo

Having an Amazon Echo at home allows you to perform many actions just by asking Alexa. One of them is to play music or YouTube videos, and we are going to explain it to you in this guide.

If you want to combine performing certain activities with playing YouTube content while at home, just tell Alexa.

As you can see below, there are currently two methods to get your Amazon Echo to play YouTube videos and, in that way, also listen to music with Alexa without paying.

Listen to free YouTube music with Alexa and your Amazon Echo

Prime Music, Spotify, or Amazon Music Unlimited are some of the music services available on the Amazon Echo, but we cannot ignore that YouTube also fulfills this function.

To play music or YouTube videos with Alexa and your Amazon Echo, you have two options: link the virtual assistant with a smart device, the simplest method, or add a skill to Alexa that allows the playback of YouTube audio, a somewhat more process complicated.

Connecting Amazon Echo with another device via Bluetooth

The easiest way to listen to free YouTube music on your Amazon Echo is to connect it with another smartphone via Bluetooth. Thus, the YouTube content that you play on this device will be heard through the Echo.

The most normal thing is to pair your mobile with the Amazon assistant since you always have the terminal at hand. However, you can also do it with your tablet or another device with Bluetooth and access to YouTube.

Once the Bluetooth connection is activated on the mobile phone, follow these steps to pair it with your Amazon Echo and play this YouTube music:

1. Say, “Alexa, pair Bluetooth. “
2. On your mobile, select the Amazon Echo device to which you are going to connect. When pairing is complete, Alexa will say, “Connected to Bluetooth.”
3. Open YouTube on your mobile and play the video you want to listen to on your Echo.

As you can see, it is a quick and easy process that consists of pairing the Echo via Bluetooth with another device that has access to YouTube.

However, you should know that you cannot control the playback of the content with the virtual assistant. You must do it through the connected phone.

YouTube skill installation on Alexa

If the previous method does not convince you or has not worked for you, you can choose to install a YouTube skill or skill in Alexa to reproduce the content of the Google platform.

Before explaining the installation process, we must clarify that the skills are extra functionalities developed by third parties that can be added to Alexa to expand its capabilities.

In this case, we will add the “Alexa-YouTube” skill, the best developed so far to integrate the YouTube functionality into the Amazon assistant.

Installing a skill in Alexa is a long and complicated process, but it will be worth it to listen to music and YouTube videos. The steps are the following:

1. Access the Alexa console.
2. Sign up for Amazon for developers. To the questions about monetization, answer “No.”
3. Click on the “Create Skill” or “Create Skill” button.
4. Give the skill a name, for example, “YouTube Skill.”
5. Select the language, which must be the same as the one Alexa has on your Amazon Echo.
6. Select “Personalizado / Custom” as an option and click on “Create Skill”.
7. Select the option “Start from scratch” and click on “Choose / Choose”.
8. Click on the “Edit JSON” option on the left side menu.
9. Clears everything in the box.
10. At the same time, in another browser window, upload this code from GitHub and copy it.
11. Paste that code into the JSON editor.
12. Click on the option “Save model” at the top.
13. In the left side menu, click on “Interfaces”. Check the “Audio Player” and “Video App” boxes. Then, click on “Save interfaces”.
14. Click on “Endpoint” in the menu and select “AWS Lambda ARN”. Now is the time to add the code for your area in the option “Default Region2. The codes are as follows:

• European Union: “arn: aws: lambda: eu-west-1: 175548706300: function: YouTube”
• Asia: “arn: aws: lambda: ap-northeast-1: 175548706300: function: YouTube”
• United States East: “arn: aws: lambda: ap-northeast-1: 175548706300: function: YouTube”
• United States West: “arn: aws: lambda: us-west-2: 175548706300: function: YouTube”

1. Save the changes made.
2. Click on “Permissions” on the left side. Activate the options “Read lists” and “Write lists”.
3. First, click on “Customize” and then on “Invocation”, both options in the menu on the left.
4. You still have time to rename the skill. If you do, click on “Change model”.
5. To finish, click on “Build model” to start a process that will take a few minutes.
6. At the top of the editor, click on “Test” to test the skill’s operation. In the option “Test is disabled for this skill”, change from “Off” to “Development”.

After these 19 steps, you will have finished installing the YouTube skill on Alexa and your Amazon Echo. With a simple “Alexa, open YouTube”, the assistant should start playing the content of the Google platform.

Obviously, it is a much more complex method than connecting via Bluetooth, but it will allow you to control the operation of YouTube through voice commands with Alexa.

Sharlene Meriel

Sharlene Meriel is an avid gamer with a knack for technology. He has been writing about the latest technologies for the past 5 years. His contribution in technology journalism has been noteworthy. He is also a day trader with interest in the Forex market.