Here’s How Amazon Lets You Cast Music From Phones To Echo Devices

Amazon’s Alexa Cast works with its Music app for users who own an Echo speaker.

Amazon in India is letting users with any smartphone that gets Alexa support to cast music from their Amazon accounts to Echo speakers. It’s called Alexa Cast, which gets added to the Amazon Music app via a software update.

The cast feature has already been marketed by Google for its Chromecast devices, that lets you stream content from a mobile or tablet to a television screen. It’s interesting that Amazon is also using the same term ‘Cast’ to market its product for audio content, which will be played on either of Echo Dot, Echo or Echo Plus smart speakers.

Alexa Cast is Amazon’s direct competition to Chromecast Audio. It allows users with Android or iOS devices and a paid Amazon Music account to use this feature.

While most of Alexa’s push in India has been in the voice search segment, this development adds a different dimension to how you can interact with an Echo speaker.

By tapping into Android and iOS users, Alexa could gain wider visibility, but that’ll only work if you have an Echo speaker. By going for Alexa Cast, users are also confined to Amazon’s ecosystem, which has already spoilt its userbase with add-on Prime benefits like early delivery, shopping deals, Amazon Video and Amazon Music among others.

According to a Strategic Analytics report, more than 50 percent smartphones by the end of 2018 will have an AI-based voice assistant running. 

How Amazon Alexa Cast Works

• Download/update Amazon Music app
• Open the app, play music and click on the Cast icon at the top right of the screen
• Select Echo speaker to cast music and hit play
• You can pause and even control volume from the Amazon Music app on your mobile.

Alexa Cast basically turns your smartphone into a remote control for Amazon Music app, especially for those who still haven’t caught the fancy of voice search via Alexa. This way, Amazon gets to add more users to its base, giving them ample time to experiment with a voice assistant on their devices.