The Amazon Echo is one of the most interesting and versatile bits of consumer technology to come out in years. However as of the time of writing this post (Jan 2017), it is still not easy to buy for folks in Republic of Ireland and unfortunately because of this lack of support some features either do not work OR just take a bit more time to set up than our buddies in the UK.
Never fear though, SmartHomeGuide.ie has got you covered. Here is our full guide on everything you need to know on buying, setting up, and what works when using an Amazon Echo in Ireland. We’ve tried to cover all the most common questions we see but if you have any that aren’t covered below, then please let us know through Twitter or Facebook and we will do our best to steer you right.
Give me a quick run down of what the Echo is? Why should I want one?
We’ve been using the Echo for a good few months now and we have covered out impressions in our long term review of using the Amazon Echo in Ireland but quickly, the Amazon Echo is basically a brilliant Siri-esque stand alone speaker, albeit one which is far better at understanding you. It is a standalone speaker which has a microphone built in and turns on when you say the word Alexa (think of this as the same way that Siri starts listening after you hold down the home button on an iPhone).
The microphone has “far field” listening which I believe ensures that the Echo can hear you from quite far away and/or you are speaking quietly. Not having to touch the device makes it far easier to start giving commands to it rather than say Siri which makes it ideal for asking for basic commands (which we cover below).
What about the Google Home? Does it work better than the Echo in Ireland?
It’s a tough one to answer as there really are some fundamental differences between the two devices. To help answer this we created the below video and asked them both a host of common questions to help you decide. We also cover some other differences between the two, like which one is easier to set up in Ireland etc.
I noticed the Amazon Echo Dot is far cheaper, which model should I get? Are they the same?
Short answer yes. If you’re wondering why the Amazon Echo Dot
The Echo Dot is effectively the microphone part of the ordinary Echo which has simply had the speaker underneath removed. If you read reviews from the main tech sites they will say that the sound from the Echo Dot is absolutely awful – which is true if you compare it to a decent bluetooth or stereo speaker – however the sound is far better than the speaker on your smartphone and is grand for background music or radio playback.
I’m not going to give a full review of the echo here – although we will post one in the reviews section in a later date (update here is that review) – but the reason I bring all this up is that one of the best commands you can give to the Echo and one which isn’t covered as well (yet) by Siri is giving it commands to interact with your smart home tech. Once you have your smart home products set up it really is easy to simply say “Alexa, turn on my living room light” and voila. It is on.
This is impressive, which is why the Echo has been a run away hit for Amazon as suddenly there is a really easy way to interact with your smart home.
Is there a release date for Amazon Echo in Ireland?
The problem at time of writing this (2016) for Irish readers is that Amazon isn’t shipping it to Eire
Most well selling products released in the UK quickly find their way over to Ireland, but in this case we might be waiting a while. Now that Google Home (Google’s Echo competitor) has been released stateside, there is a possibility that Amazon will try to leverage their first mover advantage and take worldwide market share by expanding to a lot of countries quickly. For now though we have listed all your purchasing options below…
So if Amazon.co.uk isn’t shipping to Ireland, than how do I get my hands on one?
As we said in our post on how to ship products to Ireland, at the moment you have three main options:
- Overpay and get it from Littlewoods or eBay.
To be fair to Littlewoods I just checked their site and it looks like they have a Christmas sale on, so the larger full sized Echo speaker is only €180 right now, but be warned that it usually is €209. The standard Amazon listed price is £150 (€178), although right now for Xmas it is £129, so do check both at time of purchase to compare them. eBay could have them at any price and I’m sure most people know of the positives and negatives of using their site by now.
- Get someone to pick you one up when they are stateside or in the UK
If your buddy isn’t already too laden down with requests for fags and drink, then stateside is probably going to be the best option. It will probably be cheaper (depending on the sales tax in the state your acquaintance is visiting and the exchange rate at the time) as well as the easiest option as it is possible to pick one up from high street retailers like Best buy.
- Set up a postal redirect service from Northern Ireland
Writing it there, I realise that “postal redirect service” sounds like absolute gobbledy gook but essentially what these services allow you to do is give a Northern Ireland address to Amazon, then once it arrives at that address, they forward it onto another location for you (either a locker service like Parcel Motel or straight to your home like Parcel Wizard). In a nutshell these services work well and are very reasonably priced at only a few euros a pop.
I just want to buy a Echo from Amazon in the UK, and have it shipped to Ireland. What are my choices?
Amazon and a host of other UK eCommerce stores do not ship to Ireland or only ship certain products to Ireland. This is an annoying problem for sure but there are a host of what post services that will get these products into Ireland for you.
How do these postal services work?
When you sign up for the services they give you a Northern Ireland based shipping address to use. So when you are entering your shipping info into an eCommerce site you just use this shipping address instead of your actual address.
So if it is being shipped to another address, how does my parcel end up with me?
So this depends on what service you use. At the moment there are a host of these postage services in Ireland but I will go into detail here on three different services which all ship to different places for you. These will either ship to a locker near you so that you can pick it up at up at a time and place that suits you (Parcel Motel), or they will ship to your home address (Parcel Wizard) or send it to your nearest Post office to collect from (Address Pal).
If you decide to use Parcel Wizard, you enter in your actual address when you sign up to the service. Then when you use the new UK based shipping address they give you they will know where to forward it to.
How much do these services cost? How much will the total cost be to buy an Amazon Echo in Ireland?
At the moment (Jan 2017) here are the prices per package (the services are free to sign up to) and associated pages where you can find more details:
Address Pal – €3.50
Parcel Wizard – €3.85
Parcel Motel – €3.95
Which is the best service?
All three ship to different places so it really does depend on what is handiest for you. I’m sure there are more options out there too so it is worth doing a quick Google to see if there are any new services which might be up and running by the time you read this.
In my experience Parcel Wizard is great, they also let you select a day and time slot that suits you (so you can easily select a time when you know someone will be home).They also notify you when your package arrives at the depot, when it is leaving the depot and of course when your package is delivered to your home address.
Once I get my Echo, how do I set it up? Is it any harder to do in Ireland than the UK?
Nope it’s not any harder. You can set it up using the alexa.amazon.co.uk website. The site works fine on mobile too. If you do use the mobile site you will get a prompt to download the app too.
How can I download the Alexa app on iOS in Ireland?
On iOS you will have to change your app store to the UK one in order to download the Alexa (Amazon Echo) app. If I recall correctly, the steps to do this are:
- Google “Alexa app iOS”
- Click on the app store link
- When you click on the link it will open the app store and a pop-up will notify you that you have to change app store location.
- There will be a button on the pop-up that says “change app store location” once you click this the app store page will open
- You can download the app from this page like normal
After you do this and the Alexa app downloads there is no impact on your other apps and you wont have to change the app store location back or anything like that.
Can I download the Alexa Android app in Ireland?
Yes but you will have to venture into the settings, having said this it is very simple to do. Simply:
- Open settings and go into security
- Find the setting “allow non app store downloads” or equivalent
- Click the button to allow these downloads
- Google “amazon alexa apk” there are a number of sites on which you will find it
- Once you find one, click on it and the app will download to your phone
- Once it is downloaded you will see it in your notifications tray, when you click to open it the app will download just like an app from the Google Play Store
Does the Amazon Echo work in Ireland? What features currently work?
It works really well, however some features are not as easy to set up and get running in Ireland as they would be if you were living in the UK or the States. Here are the features that I’ve found to work and a quick summary of how you use that feature. Note that this will be updated as new features become available.
Music / Spotify:
Spotify is really easy to set up. I can’t speak for other music players like Amazon Music (though you would hope it works well). You will need to open you Amazon Alexa app and go to the “skills” section. From here it is like any other app store and you will have to search for Spotify. Once you download the skill you can use the following commands straight away:
- “Alexa, Play The Beatles”
- “Alexa, Play Discover Weekly” – Note that this is a Spotify created playlist and this command doesn’t seem to work for Playlists that you create yourself.
- “Alexa, Play 80’s Tunes”
Alot of people say that they need to end the command with “on Spotify” in order for these to work. This hasn’t been my experience and the above commands do work for me. I believe this is because I have set up Spotify in the settings on the Alexa app as my default music player (the default music player is Amazon Music). Note that I am also using Spotify Premium and haven’t tried to set it up with the free version of Spotify.
Asking Alexa for the Weather:
Out of the box you can use this command:
- “Alexa, what is the weather in Dublin, Ireland?”
I know… I know… having to say add in “in Dublin” is nowhere near as cool as just saying “what’s the weather”. If you do just ask for the weather it gives you the weather for some town in Japan. I have heard rumours that people are able to change their Amazon account default location to America, then log out of your Alexa app, log back in and re-enter your location as Dublin (or wherever). I am sure for some this will be worth it but for me saying “in Dublin, Ireland” isn’t too much bother.
Using Amazon Echo as a Radio Station:
TuneIn works well, but it does depend on which radio stations you are trying to listen to. Unlike Spotify I can’t get it to work without saying “on TuneIn”. Note that one of the commands I specify below uses a particular radio stations name, but when I say an Irish radio stations name it does not seem to work ever. It also plays radio 1 still when I ask for Radio 2. Commands that work for radio
- “Alexa, play BBC Radio 1 on TuneIn”
- “Alexa, play Radio 1 on TuneIn”
(Feb 17 update – RTE has now released a skill for the Amazon Echo which will read out the news highlights for you. Read more here)
Using Amazon Echo as a Home Automation Hub:
Apart from Spotify, you’ll be pleased to know that Home Automation is one of the features that works just as well as if you were in the states or UK. All the big names work just as well as they are supposed to, including:
- Wemo products (like their great Smart Plug
) - Philips Hue Lightbulbs
- TP-Link Plugs
- Nest Thermostats
- Samsung Smartthings
- Hive Products
- Many many more
Look out for reviews of these separate products coming up on Smart Home Guide soon. In the meantime if there is anything we haven’t covered that you would like to know more about, let us know on Twitter or Facebook. Also check back on this article as we’ll update it as new products, workarounds etc are released.
So now you have all the info on how to get your Echo set up what are you waiting for? To make it easy for you, here are links to both of the Echos on Amazons UK site:
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