Alexa tip: Wake up to any song on Spotify – CNET

Chris Monroe/CNET

Alexa is getting a lot smarter. With skills and more third-party support for smart home devices, you can order pizza and control your home using just your voice. You can ask what your car’s fuel level is, set recurring alarms and much, much more.

One of the most requested features and largest missed opportunities is the ability to play music tracks as an alarm sound, especially considering all the different music streaming services that are supported.

Currently, users are limited to a pretty standard set of alarm noises, as well as Alec Baldwin bragging about getting the early bird or Missy Elliot yelling at you for sleeping so late.

There is a way, however, to have Alexa play any song on Spotify as your alarm. Here’s how it’s done.

Pair your phone or tablet using Bluetooth

Currently, Alexa totally lacks the ability to play any music as an alarm. However, it works really well as an always-on Bluetooth speaker. This means you can pass on the alarm function to your mobile device.

First, you must pair your device with Alexa. Speak, “Alexa, pair.” This will put the speaker in pairing mode. From your mobile device, navigate to Bluetooth settings and select Echo-XXXX to complete the pairing.

Here’s everything the Amazon Echo can do…

1 – 5 of 20

Next
Prev

Download Alarmify

Natively from Android or iOS, you cannot play music from Spotify as an alarm sound either. Instead, you must download an application that will enable this functionality.

From your iOS device, open App Store and search for an app called Alarmify. If you’re using an Android device, open Play Store and search for the same app. Install the application.

Once downloaded, you will need to open Alarmify and log in to your Spotify account.

Set a Spotify alarm using Alarmify

Once your Spotify account is connected to Alarmify, you will need to create a new alarm.

Android: From the Android app, tap the plus button in the lower right corner to start creating a new alarm. Select a time for the alarm and the days that you want it to repeat, then tap Select Music. Choose whether you want a specific album, track, artist or playlist and tap the check mark in the upper right corner to save the alarm.

iOS: From the app, tap the plus sign in the middle right of the screen to create a new alarm and choose a time for the alarm to sound. Tap Save to create the alarm, and tap Choose Playlist. The first time you open this menu, it will take several seconds to load the entire list of playlists. If you don’t have a playlist you want to use as an alarm, you will need to open the Spotify app and create a new one. Select it in the list from within Alarmify and tap Done in the upper right corner.

Before going to bed, ensure that the mobile device is connected to the Echo via Bluetooth and open the Alarmify app. Tap Sleep when you’re ready to doze off and wait for the alarm to sound in the morning.