Evening all,
So, from the advertising for Amazon’s new Fire TV and Fire TV stick, it appears to imply that voice control is possible if you have the voice enabled remote. It mentions Alexa!
Has anyone has any experience, or own, either of these devices and is the voice control actually Alexa? I.e. can we control SmartThings with Fire TV in the UK? I’m reading conflicting reviews so would be good to know from someone with experience.
Thanks in advance
Ade
Much discussion on the US side, with some members using the fire stick. @bamarayne has several, I’m sure he can say more.
It is really the Alexa service, but it works somewhat differently then the echo. You’re using a small handheld remote. You have to push that button and speak into the microphone. If you want to hear a response, you must have the fire stick installed in a television which is turned on. If you don’t need to Hear a response, you can initialize the fire TV stick with the television, then remove it and plug it into the wall and it will still hear you for VoiceCommands like turning on the lights.
My understanding is that, like the echo, there is no official Amazon support for this product in the UK. So I’m not sure how all of that would work.
I’m not sure whether the Alexa features have been released to the UK just yet. It’s certainly not on my Fire TV’s at the minute.
I can’t speak for the UK.
But here in the states it works like this…
You will connect the fire stick to a tv and follow the on screen prompts. Set up takes maybe ten minutes.
Once connected you will register your device, but it will most likely come already preregistered to your Amazon account.
At this point you can puts and hold the button inn the Mic to perform searches and such on your Amazon prime account. For this option the fire stick must remain connected to your tv.
Or, you can do this…
Press the Mic button and tell Alexa to turn off on your lights or any of the other things you would tell Alexa. You do NOT have to keep the fire stick connected to your tv for this. It just had to be plugged into the wall and connected to your wifi.
You will not receive a response back, like ok from an echo device. But it will control your HA devices just like the echo device.
Imagine having the voice remote for your echo device. You are upstairs and the device is down stairs. You press and hold the button and tell Alexa to turn on the bathroom light. You can not hear a response, but suddenly your bathroom is a much brighter place.
The for stick with voice is definitely a cheaper way if voice control than an echo device. But, it does not have all of the perks.
I plan on putting these in the bedrooms and places that voice control is convenient but is not always needed.
I have my echo devices in common areas and one in the master bedroom.
Lol, the master bedroom has an echo, a fire stick, and a Minimote… I can be really lazy in that room.
I can second what @bamarayne is saying (again, stateside) as I have an Echo with voice remote, a Fire TV Stick (non-voice) and a Fire TV box (with voice remote).
The voice remote for the Fire TV devices works just like the voice remote for the Echo. If you happen to be on that input on your TV, you will get a response through your TV or stereo setup. If you are not, you get no response.
I may end up moving my Echo into the bedroom now that I have the Fire TV box so I can have a voice remote in the living room and then also the kitchen (where my Echo remote is magnetically mounted to the refrigerator).
What I really want to do is setup the Echo close enough to the Sonos that I can have the Sonos send out Alexa triggers via ST and see how she handles it (not necessary, but would be fun)
The Alexa update for Fire TV and Fire TV stick via the update to Fire OS 5. The release of Fire OS 5 has been postponed for first gen Fire TV:
As for second gen 4K Fire TV and 2nd gen Fire TV stick with voice remote, the OS 5 update should have already been received and Alexa should be available on these devices. You can read up on the features of Fire OS 5 here: http://www.aftvnews.com/overview-of-fire-os-5-software-update-changes-for-the-fire-tv-stick/
Just to be clear, i believe that this operates in addition to an existing Echo though? So provides the voice control if you have an echo as the echo will still maintain the rules etc. If you don’t have an echo you will just have normal voice search but no smart things integration? So in the UK still patiently awaiting Alexa to arrive in her Echo form!
On a side note for the US people… I believe Amazon have announced a cheaper, portable (battery powered) mini echo (although while on batteries you need to press a button, but while docked works as normal). Not sure if you still need a fat Echo in the same way as above, but another method for extending functionality to other rooms without the drawbacks of the fire TV solution. (Albeit at a greater cost than fire TV)
I’m UK-based. I have a new Fire TV (UK) running 5.0.5 but apparently no Alexa in residence. I created an Amazon Alexa account using my normal UK smartthings login and also downloaded the latest Alexa APK which I then sideloaded into my Fire box. Accessing the Alexa account on my PC successfully located all of my ST devices and registered them. I thought I’d done it ! The Alexa app runs on my Fire TV but not cleanly - you cannot seem to access all the menu options and scroll into the detailed items. My ST devices are visible on the Fire TV screen but no commands seem to be recognised by Alexa.
I queried it with Amazon themselves and got a fairly generic remark saying my comments had been passed on to the Dev Team (hmmm.)
Anyone get any further ? Looks like it is not in the UK yet.
Dave
I was under thr impression that the OS needs to have the Alexa capabilities and that the region of the stick/tv would prevent using it in the UK at least I havent heard any success stories - I use it perfectly fine with my Echo though which makes me believe the stick/tv may be the prohibiting factor as they dont provide the alexa settings - might be wrong but that seemed to be the case the last time I checked - just getting the alexa app ehich controls the environment isnt sufficient as far as I saw …
Stacks up with my experience. Echos are available on ebay but at around £225 are too rich for me. Guess I’ll have to wait until there is a UK release 
Or the Fire TV OS is upgraded with the Alexa functionality. Thanks.
If anyone has questions on what’s working with an Echo connected to a ST V2 here in Europe, let me know. I have one connected and love it. Only issue is that the Echo itself is limited to US location settings, so time and weather are incorrect. Controlling things via voice is just so much more intuitive.
Yep, Fire TV 4K works with Alexa here in Norway, so does my original Amazon Echo that I bought in the States. Yes the time is off, but my simple workaround is instead of asking her “what’s the time” I just say “what’s the time in Norway”.
Simples.
Also the SmartThngs V2 Hub works great, as does the Logitec Harmony Hub and the Philips Hue Hub V2.
So glad I waited for the Hue LightStrips Plus as they are over 6 times the brightness of the original strips and in addition you get a proper white light when required.
I’m reading that a lot of people are having problems with the presence sensors and GeoFencing working with their smartphones but mine have just work from day one.
A nice touch is that the motion sensor also reports the temperature as well.
It’s been a rocky road to get where I am now though, I started out with Crestron, then went over to a Scandinavian system called Nexa, but SmartThings is by far the most reliable and intuitive platform I’ve encountered so far.
I’ve Just received a uk version of the echo dot but I don’t seem to have any integration on my fire TV despite it being connected in the Alexa App.
Just wondered if anyone else is experiencing the same with a uk vesion of Echo.
I dont think there is any integration with the Fire TVs in America either.
Yes, there has been for some time now in the US.
Sorry, just to clarify - I meant speaking to your Amazon Echo and having it do something like turning on your Fire TV. The only way to do that is via a third party e.g. Anymote / Harmony.
I understand you can use Alexa in the Fire TV and have it interact with various things though.
I have Fire TV and amazon Dot… I can see the Fire TV in the app but no integration that I can find? Also no Alexa in the Fire TV despite having the most recent update?
@Zuluwarrior I’m experiencing the same. I have the latest Fire TV OS and the voice remote but its not Alexa. I have the Echo too and when I got into the Alexa App I see the config settings for the Echo and Fire TV.
From my own searches i seems we are ment to have Alexa on the Fire TV. But todate it doesnt work for me
If you figure it out let me know 
I just picked up a FireTV stick with a non-voice remote. I’m thinking that it is only possible with the voice remote. Do the guys who are having trouble have voice remotes or are you trying with the FireTV app? I am trying to use the app but it doesn’t do anything Alexa. E.G. no weather, traffic, etc. It looks to be using the standard voice search that only looks for movies and tv.
I’m thinking of purchasing a voice remote to enable Alexa on the FireTV stick but would like confirmation that it works before purchasing.
I have 2 UK amazon fire tv 4k. And all I get is normal voice search. I was hoping to control my hive with it. But alas despite some contradictory documentation it does not seem to do anything apart from search amazon video content. Anyone any clues on this?