Watch Movies and TV Shows with Alexa and Fire TV

Alexa can do an amazing range of things, but as a Fire TV user I’m sure your main concern is using Alexa to locate, play, and control the playback of movies and TV shows on your Fire TV device. Here, I go through a few ways to use voice requests to interact with movies and TV shows.

Remember that if you’re interacting with Alexa through a Fire TV Cube, an Echo smart speaker, or a similar Alexa-enabled device, then you need to precede each utterance with the wake word Alexa.

Navigating Fire TV tabs with Alexa

To get around the Fire TV interface, you can use these voice requests:

• “Go Home.”
• “Go to Live.”
• “Go to Your Videos” (or “My Videos” or “Videos”).
• “Go to DVR” (only if you have Fire TV Recast installed).
• “Go to Movies.”
• “Go to TV Shows.”
• “Go to Apps.”
• “Go to Settings.”

Using Alexa to locate movies and TV shows on Fire TV

You can use any of the following voice requests to search for shows on Fire TV:

• “Show me the movie [movie title].”
• “Show me the TV show [series title].”
• “Show me [actor] movies.”
• “Show me [genre] movies.”
• “Show me [genre] TV shows.”

In each case, you can replace “Show me” with either “Search for” or “Find.”

Watching a movie trailer with Alexa's help

If you want help deciding whether an upcoming or recently released movie is something you’d like to check out, or if you just get a kick out of previews, you can ask Alexa to play you the trailer for a movie. Use either of the following voice requests:

• “Play the trailer for [movie title].”
• “Show the trailer for [movie title].”

Having Alexa play movies and TV shows on Fire TV

After you have a movie or TV show playing, you can also use the following voice requests to control the playback:

• “Pause.”
• “Resume” (or “Play”).
• “Rewind” (rewinds 10 seconds).
• “Rewind X”
• “Fast-forward” (fast-forwards 10 seconds).
• “Fast-forward X”
• “Next episode.”
• “Previous episode.”

Watching live TV on Fire TV with Alexa's help

If your Fire TV includes live TV channels via an HDTV antenna connection or other source, you can use the following voice requests to display the channel guide:

• “Channel guide.”
• “Open channel guide.”
• “Show me the channel”

You can also use the following voice requests to tune to a station from anywhere in the Fire TV interface:

• “Change to [channel or network].”
• “Go to [channel or network].”
• “Tune to [channel or network].”
• “Watch [channel or network].”

In these requests, replace channel with the station’s channel number (for example, “Tune to 5.1”) or replace network with the station’s network name (for example, “Watch NBC”).

How do you know the station’s channel number? You have three ways to find out:

• Choose Settings→Live TV→Channel Management, and then choose your live TV source (such as Antenna Channels). In the list of channels that appears, each station displays its channel number.
• On your Fire TV Edition version of the Alexa Voice Remote, press the Guide button to display the channel guide. As you scroll vertically through the guide, you see the channel number for each station below the station logo.
• Use the TV Fool website to search for broadcast stations in your area. In the TV Fool results, the channel numbers you want are listed in the Channel section’s (Virt) column.

Controlling the volume on Fire TV through Alexa

To get the playback volume just right, here are some requests you can use:

• “Volume up.”
• “Increase the volume.”
• “Raise the volume.”
• “Louder.”
• “Volume down.”
• “Decrease the volume.”
• “Lower the volume.”
• “Softer.”
• “Set volume to X” (where X is the volume setting you want).
• “Volume X” (where X is the volume setting you want).
• “Mute.”
• “Unmute.”

Movie and TV show info requests through Alexa

Here are a few useful requests related to getting information about TV shows and movies:

• “What is the IMDb rating for [TV show or movie title]?”
• “Tell me about the movie [movie title].”
• “When was movie [movie title] released?”
• “Who stars in [TV show or movie title]?”
• “What is [actor]’s latest movie?”
• “Which movie won the Best Picture Oscar in [year]?”
• “How many Oscars has [actor] won?”

Some movie Easter eggs

In the software world, an Easter egg is a whimsical program feature that’s hidden by default and must be discovered. Alexa, you’ll be delighted to know, contains hundreds of Easter eggs. You can get a random one using either of these requests:

• “Give me an Easter egg.”
• “Give me a hard-boiled Easter egg.”

For a more targeted Easter egg hunt, you can try specific topics such as TV shows, which I discuss in the next section. Movies are another great source for Alexa Easter eggs. There are dozens, perhaps even hundreds, so consider the following ten to be a mere appetizer:

• “Open the pod bay doors.” (2001: A Space Odyssey)
• “Who’s on first?” (Abbot and Costello)
• “Release the Kraken!” (Clash of the Titans)
• “Klattu barada nikto.” (The Day the Earth Stood Still)
• “E.T. phone home.” (E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial)
• “Define supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” (Mary Poppins)
• “Are we in the Matrix?” (The Matrix)
• “What is my mission?” (Mission: Impossible)
• “What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?” (Monty Python and the Holy Grail)
• “What is the Jedi code?” (Star Wars)

Some TV Easter eggs

Alexa doesn’t have a ton of TV Easter eggs, but here are a few to wet your whistle:

• “What is your cunning plan?” (Blackadder)
• “Who shot J.R.?” (Dallas)
• “Don’t mention the war.” (Fawlty Towers)
• “Winter is coming.” (Game of Thrones)
• “Who loves orange soda?” (Kenan & Kel)
• “Who loves ya baby?” (Kojak)
• “This is a dead parrot.” (Monty Python)
• “More cowbell.” (Saturday Night Live)
• “What is the Prime Directive?” (Star Trek)
• “Where’s the beef?” (Wendy’s commercial)