How compatible is the Amazon Echo with an iPhone?

(Image credit: Amazon)

How compatible is the Amazon Echo with an iPhone?

Best answer: Both the iPhone and iPad play nice with Amazon's entire lineup of Echo smart speakers. As long as the device uses Amazon Alexa, compatibility is guaranteed.

Flagship: Amazon Echo (4th Generation) ($55 at Amazon)

Premium choice: Echo Studio ($169 at Amazon)

The baby: Echo Dot (5th Generation) ($24.99 at Amazon)

Screen time: Echo Show 10 ($199.99 at Amazon)

Amazon's Echo smart speaker lineup works great with all the best iPhones and you can even use Apple Music directly from the Alexa-powered devices.

This compatibility allows you to tie Apple's music subscription service to the Amazon Alexa app. In doing so, you can play your favorite Apple Music titles to your Amazon Echo products. Before this, you could only tie together the two through Bluetooth, which came with limitations.

You can ask Alexa to play songs, artists, albums, or genres from Apple Music. You can also play Beats 1 radio, playlists from Apple Music's editors, or playlists in your iCloud Music Library. Say something like "Alexa, play Pop Throwback on Apple Music," or "Alexa, play Cass McCombs on Apple Music."

You can also listen to Apple Music in stereo or across multiple rooms by adding a Multi-Room Music group in the Alexa app. Apple Music for Alexa is currently available only in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Ireland.

Your Echo product and iPhone don't just make beautiful music together. You can also use the Alexa app to introduce Amazon Skills to your home. These third-party applets help your Amazon Echo to respond to thousands of commands that cover a wide array of tasks. For example, you can use Skills to get movie times or track packages, control home automation devices, tell jokes, and much more.

Apples and Echos

Amazon Echo Dot — (Image credit: Amazon)

Did you know you can now use Amazon Alexa on your iPhone without an Echo product in your home? Well, you can! Since 2018, this has been an option in the Amazon Alexa app for iOS. To get started, you'll first need to give Alexa permission to access your iPhone microphone and location by pushing on the Alexa button in the app.

To ask Alexa a question after that, you'll need to use the same button. As long as your iPhone has internet access, Alexa will answer your questions. If you're in your home, those questions are responded to directly from your Amazon Echo. Otherwise, the response comes through the Alexa app.

Are you looking for more? Amazon Alexa is also baked into the Amazon shopping app so you can order stuff just by using your voice.

Lots of choices

It seems each passing year brings with it new Amazon Echo devices with Amazon Alexa baked in. Since the first Amazon Echo launched in 2014, Amazon has introduced other smart speakers and speaker-related products with Amazon Alexa built-in. The voice assistant is also found on third-party products too which also work with iOS devices.

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John-Anthony Disotto is the How To Editor of iMore, ensuring you can get the most from your Apple products and helping fix things when your technology isn’t behaving itself. Living in Scotland, where he worked for Apple as a technician focused on iOS and iPhone repairs at the Genius Bar, John-Anthony has used the Apple ecosystem for over a decade and prides himself in his ability to complete his Apple Watch activity rings. John-Anthony has previously worked in editorial for collectable TCG websites and graduated from The University of Strathclyde where he won the Scottish Student Journalism Award for Website of the Year as Editor-in-Chief of his university paper. He is also an avid film geek, having previously written film reviews and received the Edinburgh International Film Festival Student Critics award in 2019. John-Anthony also loves to tinker with other non-Apple technology and enjoys playing around with game emulation and Linux on his Steam Deck.

In his spare time, John-Anthony can be found watching any sport under the sun from football to darts, taking the term “Lego house” far too literally as he runs out of space to display any more plastic bricks, or chilling on the couch with his French Bulldog, Kermit.