Alexa Update and Amazon Music Capabilities

[Lpetters84]

Hey guys,
I just got the Amazon Alexa update and I’ve noticed when I’m in the garage still connected to my house wifi, I can say “Alexa, play country music” and it will
Work but as soon as I get out of range from my house wifi, it no longer allows be to use Alexa for Amazon music. It says I need an additional streaming service. Anyone else notice this? Was curious if there was a work around because I definitely don’t want to pay for Amazon music twice.

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[arlowe13]

I wonder if you turned on your wifi sharing on your phone, if you could connect the truck to it?

 

[Lpetters84]

@arlowe13 - that’s a good idea! I’ll try that out and see what happens.

 

[Fordphanatic]

No there is no work around. You're paying ford to be able to have Alexa stream from your amazon account. While yes it does suck paying the $10 to ford for connected services Alexa is convenient for playing music hands free while driving. You could also listen to amazon music for free connected to Bluetooth. But not hands-free voice activated. I guess its a matter of preference and disposable income.

 

[arlowe13]

I've always used "OK Google" to control my Spotify. With my phone in a cradle on the dash, I don't even have to push a button for it to activate. Does this not work with Amazon Music? I have no intention of even using Alexa but Google does everything I need (including home automation).

 

[Fordphanatic]

That I'm not sure about. I always use Amazon music....and Alexa I have never tried any of Googles home automation stuff or asked Google to control Amazon music. I'll have to try.

 

[KBKEITH]

I pay the $10/mo. It’s nice to be able to stream music if I am without my phone.

 

[Lpetters84]

I've always used "OK Google" to control my Spotify. With my phone in a cradle on the dash, I don't even have to push a button for it to activate. Does this not work with Amazon Music? I have no intention of even using Alexa but Google does everything I need (including home automation).

The hot spot does actually work. But now that I think about it.. yes I can turn my settings on in my iPhone to respond to “Alexa”. Glad I asked. Thanks guys!

 

[m_bt54]

The hot spot does actually work. But now that I think about it.. yes I can turn my settings on in my iPhone to respond to “Alexa”. Glad I asked. Thanks guys!

Looks like I’ll be connecting my truck to my phone’s hotspot. Thanks for figuring this one out!

 

[m_bt54]

I can confirm this works with most of my configured Alexa music sources. The only exceptions are I can’t ask Alexa to play music from Apple Music because it is not supported ( known Apple Music/ Alexa limitation on 3rd party devices) and unfortunately I can‘t ask Alexa to stream music from Sirius XM because it tries to play from my vehicle where I don’t have a subscription and not my streaming account, which I mooch off of my wife’s subscription and have linked to my Alexa account.

For anyone with an iPhone, you can create a Siri Shortcut Automation to turn your hotspot on when your car connects to CarPlay and to disconnect when you disconnect from Carplay ( I also use a minute delay which has helped with a couple minor annoyances I encountered).

 

[Lpetters84]

I can confirm this works with most of my configured Alexa music sources. The only exceptions are I can’t ask Alexa to play music from Apple Music because it is not supported ( known Apple Music/ Alexa limitation on 3rd party devices) and unfortunately I can‘t ask Alexa to stream music from Sirius XM because it tries to play from my vehicle where I don’t have a subscription and not my streaming account, which I mooch off of my wife’s subscription and have linked to my Alexa account.

For anyone with an iPhone, you can create a Siri Shortcut Automation to turn your hotspot on when your car connects to CarPlay and to disconnect when you disconnect from Carplay ( I also use a minute delay which has helped with a couple minor annoyances I encountered).

Thanks for sharing! Any chance you could share the generic steps on how to do this?

 

[m_bt54]

In the shortcuts app click on automation on the bottom in the middle.

Click plus on the top right then select personal automation.

In the second section click CarPlay then connects (disconnects for the second automation you want to create).

Then create an automation that looks like this.

Pictures are in the wrong order. You will see the second one first.

 

[Lpetters84]

Wow good info! Thanks @m_bt54 !

 

[JasonATL]

In the shortcuts app click on automation on the bottom in the middle.

Click plus on the top right then select personal automation.

In the second section click CarPlay then connects (disconnects for the second automation you want to create).

Then create an automation that looks like this.

Pictures are in the wrong order. You will see the second one first.

This is great. Does it only work if you connect the cable for car play? I can't get the truck to connect to my iphone hotspot when using wireless carplay.

 

[Lpetters84]

This is great. Does it only work if you connect the cable for car play? I can't get the truck to connect to my iphone hotspot when using wireless carplay.

It does work without a cable via CarPlay. I had issues at first when connecting my hotspot to my truck the very first time. I turned off my hotspot on my phone. Turned phone off, turned phone back on and also turned my hotspot back on. I then disconnected my truck from my home wifi and made sure to select my hotspot before the truck attempted to reconnect to my home wifi. It took a couple try’s but did work.

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