After resisting for nearly a decade,
I finally got an Amazon Echo device into my home.
Here is my new Echo Dot 4th Gen in action.
Today, I'll show you how to set it up in your own home
and what you should opt out of while you're at it.
(beep) Play my intro music.
("A Thousand Miles")
But before we get into it,
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and videos like this from us every week.
Alright, let's get into it.
Inside the Echo Dot box you'll find the device itself,
its charger, and some instructions.
This Echo is about the size of a softball,
making it much bigger than previous versions
but still small enough to fit anywhere in your home
within reach of the charger, of course.
The whole setup takes place in the (beep) app.
If you're brand new to the whole Amazon ecosystem,
download the app while you're opening the box
to save a little time.
Once you're in the app,
find the Devices option on the bottom menu.
The icon looks like a little house with some lines inside.
From the device's screen,
you'll click the Plus sign icon to add your new Echo.
Choose Echo and Alexa in the top-left corner.
Here, you can see I have a couple of devices
like my Kindle Fire that already have
you-know-who activated.
If your new Echo doesn't pop up in this menu,
make sure it's plugged in and powering on,
it should appear on the app soon.
Once it shows up in that menu, select your Echo,
and start pairing it with the app.
While it's pairing, you'll see the light ring
on the base of the device glow orange.
It connected to my Wi-Fi automatically
since I already had some Amazon devices activated.
If that's not the case in your house,
it'll ask for your Wi-Fi network name and password.
The Echo Dot will chime once it's on your Wi-Fi,
and your app will send you to an introduction screen
where you can select your preferred language
and where your device will stay.
Next, it'll confirm your address.
If you already have an Amazon account
with your address preloaded, it should pop up automatically.
You can name this location Home,
Work, or wherever you put it.
You'll also get a prompt
for Alexa to learn your name and voice;
just type in your name and listen to it
repeat it back. [Alexa] Katie.
Then, you'll get voice prompts
for the device to recognize your voice.
Now you're all set up and ready to go,
but you will encounter a few opt-in
and opt-out features once you're done with setup.
So here's a quick guide to those.
The first I saw was Amazon Sidewalk;
we have have a whole video about this feature
that you can check out to learn more.
The short explanation is that Sidewalk shares
a slice of your internet connectivity
with other Ring and Amazon devices nearby,
whether they're in your house or not.
So, if you or your neighbors
have a Ring camera outside your home,
that little piece of Wi-Fi pie can help them stay connected.
We'll link to Rebecca's video on Sidewalk here
so you can learn more about that.
As for me, I opted out.
I don't have any Ring cameras outside my home.
And for digital security reasons,
I choose to keep my Wi-Fi inside.
I also opted out of Drop In;
that lets you broadcast messages
to other speakers in your home.
This way you can tell the kids "Dinner is ready"
without yelling upstairs for example.
It has all kinds of uses for it but I opted out
because I live alone and I only have one Echo device,
so it didn't seem super necessary.
The (beep) app might also ask you
for access to your contacts;
I decided against this one too.
But if you do say yes,
it will give you the ability to call people
in your contacts list via the smart speaker.
It's cool, but I didn't feel like it was super necessary
for my every day lifestyle.
And I'm not sure I want Amazon
to have that information from me.
Now that your Echo Dot is up and running,
you can use it for all kinds of things,
and (beep) will be sure to remind you of that.
[Alexa] One Last thing, I've got mad skills,
skills are like apps for (beep)
so you can do more, like play games,
order a pizza, or listen to a meditation.
Be sure to subscribe to us for more videos coming out
as I get to know this device a little better in my own home.
Thanks (beep), play me out.
("Bye Bye Bye")
Hey, if you're part of the 10% of people who watch this far,
or my parents, thanks for watching.
Don't stop there though,
we have a ton of other resources on SafeWise.com
that you can check out.
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you'll get new videos from us every week.
Thanks for watching and stay safe.
(relaxing music)