Displaying Timed Photos With Alexa
Hey guys,
Tonight I was asked by someone on how to play certain photos and videos on their Alexa screen device, specifically: The Echo Spot. I thought I would share my advice here. This same method will work for the Echo Show devices as well.
First off you need to open up your Amazon Photos app, select a few photos and videos for uploading. Once they are done, long press on the photo or videos you’d like to display, then hit the 3 dots icon on the upper right hand of the screen.
Next:
Hit the “Add to album” button and either create a new album, or add it to an existing album. Name it something you can remember so that you can tell alexa to find it later.
That’s it for this step! You can now simply ask alexa: “Alexa: show my vacations photos”, or: “show my pets photo album” and your photos and videos will play on your screen. I have found that videos start with no audio until you tap the screen once. At this time I cannot find a workaround for this.
If you have 2 devices within talking distance from one another you can take this to the next level:
Scheduling Specific Photos and/or Videos To Play At A Given Time:
Ok, so you have your photos uploaded & inserted into your photo albums. What if you wanted to wake up to some nice sunrise photos, or family vacation photos or videos? Perhaps come home from work and see your device playing your latest photos?
I have not found a way to do this within Alexa itself automatically, but you can do this by creating a clever routine to show specific slideshows at certain times. Here’s how:
First open up the Alexa app and create a new routine. Choose the option “When This Happens>Schedule”
Next set the time and dates. What I did next was chose the wake word for the device I wanted the photos to play on, in this case my Echo Show wakes up to “computer”.
Next I added an action to turn up the audio on the device that will talk to my Echo Show which will be my Echo Spot. I set its volume to 80%, just to make sure my show hears the dot.
Next I add an action to make the Spot wake up the Echo Show by choosing “Alexa Says”, then “Custom”:
I typed in the wake work: “Computer”.
I repeat this step to have alexa say “Show vacation photo album”.
You can have it say anything like “Show photos from my family album” or “Show my vacation photos”.
As a last step I had it turn down the volume to my echo spot back to where I normally keep it (4 in my case). I don’t want the speaker to continue to yell all day long… lol
Lastly: Be sure to select the device that will be talking to your Amazon screen device from the last option on the routines page. In my case: my Echo Spot is talking to my echo show, so I select my Echo Spot:
Here is the finished routine:
It’s a round about way to wake up to, and come home to different photos and videos playing on your Echo Shows (or Echo Spot), but it works and you can have it play anything you want, whenever you want. Someday I hope Amazon has a skill that does this for you from your Amazon Photos albums. Until then you can use this method to accomplish scheduled slideshows.
I might add that it’s also somewhat amusing to see the devices talk to one another.
I hope you enjoyed this little Alexa tutorial focused on displaying your custom photos and videos from your Amazon Photos albums!
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