Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Smart Home
  3. News

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Amazon Alexa will now help Dish customers watch TV without using their hands

Dish TV's hands-free Alexa controls make the jump to Joey boxes

Brendan Hesse
Brie Barbee
By and

dish-network
Dish Network
If you’re going to live the couch potato life, you might as well embrace it. Here to help you do just that is the latest Alexa skill. It comes from Dish and it lets you watch hands-free, voice-controlled television, simply by pairing a Hopper DVR with your Amazon Echo or Echo Dot, or with any other Alexa-enabled device.

With this new skill, Dish has become the first TV provider to feature direct compatibility with Amazon’s virtual assistant. The announcement was actually first made in January at CES and now, the waiting game is finally over. No longer will you have to rely on a pesky remote to change your channels — because really, don’t your fingers need to relax from all the texting they’ve been doing? Instead, just tell Alexa what you want to watch, and it will oblige.

Recommended Videos

Better yet, as of October, Dish TV has extended all Joey clients, including the regular Joey, 4K Joey, Wireless Joey, Super Joey, and Wally HD single-tuner receivers. Joeys are the satellite boxes that connect to the Hopper DVR, allowing you to have multiple TVs connected. The current Hopper 6 devices allow up to six Joeys to be connected, while previous generations support up to three.

Related

Now that these devices all support Alexa, users can now use their Echo device — either an Amazon Echo, Echo Dot, or Echo Show — to control all the Hoppers and Joey boxes connected in their home network. In order to enable the feature, each Hopper and Joey will need to be paired to the Echo device.

You can use Alexa to navigate, search, and play television content on any broadband-connected Hopper DVR based on channel, title, actor, or even genre. You can say things like, “Go to ESPN,” or “Change the channel to NBC.” Or if you want to get even more specific, you can tell Alexa to “Find The Voice” or “Watch Game of Thrones” and even specify the season and episode.

“Amazon is excited to be working with Dish to develop an Alexa skill that offers a hands-free television experience, expanding the ways that our customers can use Alexa devices like Amazon Echo to make their lives easier,” Rob Pulciani, director of Amazon Alexa, said in a statement. “You no longer have to set down your popcorn to change the channel, or spend time searching for what channel the game is on — just ask Alexa to do it for you.”

Update: Article updated now that all Dish TV Joey boxes support Alexa voice features.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Brendan Hesse
Brendan Hesse
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Brendan has written about a wide swath of topics, including music, fitness and nutrition, and pop culture, but tech was…
How to use Zoom on your Amazon Echo Show smart display
A Zoom conference on the Echo Show 10.

Zoom became such a household name during the past year of quarantine that it's almost a meme, but no one can deny the utility of the videoconference platform. There are even entire courses around proper Zoom etiquette -- or, as some people say, Zetiquette -- now.

Classes, business meetings, and even social gatherings have all been held through the platform. While it was quietly announced last fall, Zoom is now available to use on an Amazon Echo Show smart display. Don't worry, no additional licensing of any kind is required.
How to set up Zoom for Echo Show
Zoom has simplified the process of hosting or connecting to rooms through the Echo Show. You'll just need a few things to get started: The Echo Show 8 or Echo Show 10 (3rd Gen), the Alexa app on your mobile device, and a Zoom account. At the moment, Zoom compatibility is limited to these two devices, but we really hope other Amazon Echo Show smart displays also get this useful feature in the future.

Read more
What the lights on your Amazon Echo device mean
best cyber monday echo deals get a dot for just 22 and show 5 50 1

Have you ever walked into your room to find your Amazon Echo device flashing yellow? What about during a big thunderstorm, when your whole house loses power -- when the electricity restores, a blue light starts pulsing on your Echo. One thing we love about Amazon Echo gear is that, in addition to Alexa, your smart speaker employs a coded language of pulsing and solid colors to communicate device status and other pertinent notifications. What those colors and lights mean, though, isn't obvious at first.

We've put together a helpful guide to help you understand what each of the colored lights means. If you ever forget what a certain color represents and your device is lit up, you can say, "Alexa, what does your light mean," and she will explain what her current status light represents.
Blue
Powering up and command responses

Read more
You can now scan bar codes for your grocery list with the Amazon Echo Show
Barcode on a cookie pack

Amazon.com announced their fourth-quarter sales are up 21% to $87.4 billion and, interestingly, they revealed that people talk to Alexa billions of times per week. While Alexa's abilities haven't reached the billions yet, they are now one feature closer. In addition to being able to give medication reminders and order refills, order pizza, pay utility bills, and purchase fuel at more than 11,500 Exxon and Mobil stations, the smart assistant can scan, too. Now when you need to add a new item to your grocery list, you can scan the item's bar code by holding it up in front of your Echo Show 5 and Echo Show 8. This new feature was announced in the What's New with Alexa Monthly Roundup for January.

 

Read more