How to Control Your Amazon Echo from Anywhere

If your Amazon Echo can’t hear you from the other room, or if you just want to control it when you’re away from home altogether, you can do so with some handy third-party apps.

The Echo’s far-field voice recognition technology is one of the device’s most touted features, and it allows it to hear your voice from well across the room, even when there’s music playing. However, its biggest hindrance is walls, and if you want to control the Echo from the next room over, it may not hear you. Furthermore, if you’re away from home and you want to give a voice command to the Echo, you obviously can’t.

However, with Astra on iOS and Ubi for Android, you can give your Amazon Echo voice commands through your phone, effectively getting rid of the need for the $30 Voice Remote, too. These apps do not directly control your physical Amazon Echo per se, but they act as a virtual Echo device and simply communicate with your Alexa account.

Astra is $2.99, while Ubi is a free download—we’ll detail the process of setting up both.

How to Set Up Ubi for Android

First, we’re going to set up Ubi. After you download and install the app, open it up and tap “Login with Amazon” at the bottom.

You’ll be taken to the web browser where you’ll login to your Amazon account.

On the next screen, tap on “I Agree” at the bottom.

You’ll be taken back to the Ubi app where you can immediately begin using Alexa from anywhere. Simply tap once on the big round button and say your command (no need to say “Alexa”). Alexa will respond through the phone’s speaker.

How to Set Up Astra for iOS

For iOS devices, Astra is the app the get. It costs a few bucks, but it has a really solid user interface and is really easy to use.

When you first open the app after downloading it, tap on “Sign In” at the bottom.

You’ll be taken to Amazon’s website to login to your Amazon account. If you have the Amazon app installed on your device, you’ll get a prompt asking to open the Amazon app.

Once you login, go ahead and tap on “I Agree” at the bottom.

The app will then need access to your device’s microphone, so go ahead and give it permission.

That’s all there is to it! You can now tap and hold on the microphone button at the bottom as you say an Alexa command. Just like with Ubi, there’s no need to start with “Alexa”.

Of course, the only downside of these apps is that they aren’t quite as quick to use as the Voice Remote, where you can just pick it up and speak, and they don’t have the always-on listening of the Echo. But if you want a much cheaper alternative that you can also use while you’re away from home entirely, then Ubi and Astra are the apps to get.