How to Play Podcasts with Alexa on Amazon Echo
190This video walks you through how to use the AnyPod Alexa skill to use your voice to play and control podcasts through your Amazon Echo device.
See more videos by Max here: https://www.youtube.com/c/MaxDalton
Video Transcript:
Hi. I'm Max Dalton, and in this video I'm going to talk through how to use the AnyPod skill to use your voice to play and control podcasts through your Amazon Echo device.
One of the more hidden talents that Amazon Echo devices have is the ability to play and control podcasts. While Echo's Alexa has a pre-installed TuneIn skill that you can use to play podcasts, the service does a poor job of identifying what podcast you're asking for, and it offers virtually no controls for navigating between different episodes of a podcast, or within a specific podcast episode. However, the AnyPod skill for Amazon Echo devices is free and easy to install, and does a masterful job of recognizing what podcast you're asking for, and offers a wide breadth of controls for navigating between different podcast episodes, or jumping around to different parts of a specific episode.
And now, let's talk through how to install and use the AnyPod skill with Alexa on Amazon Echo devices.
Step 1. Say, "Alexa, enable the AnyPod skill." Alexa will inform you that the AnyPod skill has been enabled on your device, and then she will encourage you to ask to play a specific podcast.
Step 2. Say, "Alexa, ask AnyPod to play (blank) podcast," inserting the name of the podcast you want to play. For example, if you want to listen to the Now Playing podcast, you would say, "Alexa, ask AnyPod to play Now Playing." If the podcast is found, Alexa will inform you that she is now playing the latest episode of your requested podcast, and will also tell you the episode title of that specific podcast. If your requested podcast can't be found, Alexa will inform you that your podcast can't be found on AnyPod, but it will be noted and it may be available in the future.
Step 3. To move back to the previous episode of the podcast you're listening to, say, "Alexa, ask AnyPod to play the previous episode." Alternatively, you can also play the next episode by saying, "Alexa, ask AnyPod to play the next episode."
Step 4. You can jump to a specific episode of a podcast while listening to that podcast if you know the episode number by saying, "Alexa, ask AnyPod to play episode (insert episode number)." For example, if I was listening to the Now Playing podcast and wanted to listen to the 75th episode of that podcast, I would say, "Alexa, ask AnyPod to play episode 75."
Step 5. You can jump around within a specific episode by saying, "Alexa, ask AnyPod to fast forward 30 seconds" to go forward 30 seconds within a specific podcast, or by saying, "Alexa, ask AnyPod to fast forward three minutes" to move forward three minutes within a specific podcast.
Step 6. If you need to start a podcast over again, simply say, "Alexa, ask AnyPod to restart."
Congratulations! You're now up and running with using the AnyPod skill on your Amazon Echo device, and can easily play and control podcasts using your voice through your device.