Alexa: FAQs, Setup, Use, and Basic Troubleshooting

Alexa comes with a pretty broad skill-set and is ready to help out if you have any questions on subjects such as meteorology, current events, trivia, and even how to perfectly poach an egg.

By turning on different skills, Alexa can acquire even more abilities—such as being able to communicate with your smart home devices, including your ecobee thermostat.

When the ecobee and ecobee plus skills are enabled, Alexa can connect with your thermostat so you can control your ecobee with your voice, for a hands-free experience!

The following ecobee devices come with Alexa built-in. With Alexa built-in you can control your ecobee device, other Alexa-enabled products in your home, and enjoy access to over 50,000 Alexa skills —all from your ecobee device.

• ecobee SmartThermostat with voice control
• ecobee4
• ecobee Switch+

Learn how to enable Alexa on your ecobee thermostat with Alexa built-in in the next section.

All ecobee devices are compatible with your Amazon Echo and Dot devices, which means you can control your ecobee device with your Amazon Alexa device.

Learn how to enable the ecobee skills on your ecobee device in the next section.

 

At this point in time, ecobee devices with built-in Alexa only support the "Alexa" wake word. We will let you know if this changes in the future!

 

Enabling Alexa on your SmartThermostat with voice control or ecobee4 involves linking your Amazon account to your ecobee account either through the ecobee app or through the ecobee Web Portal.

Not quite what you're looking for? Find instructions on enabling voice control on your Switch+.

Before proceeding, ensure you have the following:

• A SmartThermostat with voice control or ecobee4 that's registered and connected to Wi-Fi.
• An Amazon account. If you don't have an Amazon account, you can create one for free on Amazon's website.
• The ecobee app, or access to the web.

Enabling Alexa through the ecobee app:

1. Sign in to the app using your registered ecobee username and password.
2. Select your thermostat, and tap the Microphone icon on the bottom-right corner of the screen.
   
   
3. Tap the Sign in with Amazon button.
   
   
4. Enter your Amazon account email and password.
5. Press Allow to enable the Alexa Voice Service on your SmartThermostat with voice control or ecobee4.
   
   
6. Select Discover Devices in the Alexa app or say "Alexa, discover devices" to discover your ecobee thermostat.
   
   
   
7. Tap Done. Congratulations, you're all linked up!
   
   

Enabling Alexa through the ecobee web portal:

1. Log in to the web portal with your username and password.
   
   
2. Select the tile that says Alexa Voice Control: Unlinked.
   

   

3. On the Alexa Voice Control scree, select Next in the bottom-right corner.
   
4. You’ll be prompted to sign in to your Amazon account to allow permission to link your Amazon and ecobee accounts.
5. Select Done. Congratulations, you're all linked up!
   
   NOTE: Before Alexa can recognize your thermostat, you'll need to "Discover Devices." To discover devices, say "Alexa, discover devices" to your ecobee's speaker or select Discover Devices in the Alexa app. (If you aren't near your thermostat at the time, you can always complete this step later.)

Enable the ecobee and ecobee plus skills to control your ecobee thermostat with your Amazon Echo and Dot devices.

Note: The ecobee and ecobee plus skills will be enabled automatically on your SmartThermostat with voice control and ecobee4 when you activate Alexa through the ecobee app or Web Portal.

To connect your ecobee device to your Amazon Echo or Dot, follow these steps:

1. Open up your Amazon Alexa app. 
   
   
2. Select the Devices icon in the bottom-right corner. 
   
3. Select Enable Smart Home Skills.
   
4. Tap the Magnifying glass icon in the top right corner of the screen and enter "ecobee". 
   
   
5. You will see two options—ecobee plus and ecobee. We want to enable both. Select them one at a time and then tap Enable to Use.
   
    
   
   
6. A link account window will pop up. Sign in with your ecobee account credentials.  
7. On the Authorize Amazon screen, select Accept. 
   
8. Your ecobee account is now successfully linked to your Amazon Alexa smart home! 
9. Finally, select Discover Devices in the Alexa app or say "Alexa, discover devices" to discover your ecobee thermostat.

You can unlink and remove Amazon Alexa through the ecobee app or the web portal.

Unlinking Alexa from the ecobee app:

1. Under Home, select the device you will be unlinking from Alexa.
2. Tap the Microphone icon in the bottom-right corner of the screen.
   
   
3. Select the Unlink Alexa at the bottom of the Audio screen. Confirm by selecting Unlink in the pop-up.
   
   

Unlinking Alexa from the web portal:

1. Log in to the ecobee web portal and select the Alexa Voice Control tile.
   
   
2. Select Unlink Alexa from the menu on the left-hand side of the screen, then select the Unlink Alexa button in the bottom-right corner.
   
   

 

This icon indicates that there are notifications from Alexa on your Amazon Alexa account. To listen to your notifications, say "Alexa, what did I miss?" or "Alexa, read my notifications".

To clear your notifications and remove the blue bubble icon from your screen, say "Alexa, clear my notifications" or "Alexa, delete all of my notifications".

 

Both SmartThermostat with voice control and ecobee4 use far-field voice technology. This means that you can talk to your thermostat from anywhere in the room and Alexa will understand you. It's natural and intuitive—and we actually recommend being further than one foot away from your Alexa device for the best voice recognition and understanding.

They do not need to be on the same Wi-Fi network, but they both need to be connected to Wi-Fi. You can even ask Alexa to adjust the temperature in a different location (such as a country house) if you have a registered ecobee there!

To configure your device settings:

1. Open the Alexa app.
2. Select Settings from the Hamburger menu in the top-left corner.
3. Select Device Settings, then select your SmartThermostat voice control or ecobee4.
   
   From here you can change your ecobee’s location, select the region, time zone and the measurement units.
   
   
   

If you want your ecobee4 and SmartThermostat to stop listening to you, you can turn off the built-in microphone and activate Privacy Mode by tapping the Microphone icon on your thermostat, then toggling Microphone to Off.
 

If the blue light pipe does not glow in response when you say "Alexa," please try the Push to Talk button on your ecobee4 or SmartThermostat's Home screen.

To do this, tap the microphone icon on the bottom-left corner of the home screen, and then tap on the Push To Talk icon. After, you’ll see the blue light pipe glow. Ask your question, and Alexa should respond.

Tip: You may also want to try moving closer to your ecobee and making sure you’re saying “Alexa” clearly.

If you ever find that you’re unable to wake Alexa with your voice, you can still use voice commands using the Push to Talk button on your ecobee4 or SmartThermostat's Home screen.

To do so, on your thermostat, tap the Microphone icon, and then tap the Push to Talk icon.

Once tapped, you’ll see the blue LED light up. Now go ahead and ask your question. Alexa should respond.

Unfortunately, “My ecobee” is difficult for Alexa to understand. Knowing this, we’ve made sure that the ecobee skill automatically converts Alexa’s understanding of “My ecobee” to just “ecobee”. Try saying, “Alexa, set ecobee to [number] degrees” and Alexa will now understand.