Amazon Digital and Device Forum

Below is the transcript from Amazon today.... At first it was a USA feature only then the message changed; apparently the linking feature can't be done because I am still in the 30 day free trial. I really think they are making it up as we go along. Relevant bits highlighted in bold

 

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Hello,

Here's a copy of the chat transcript you requested:

Initial Question: Hi. I have 4 Echos devices in my house, and am using the Amazon Music Unlimited Family plan. I want to link Alexa Voice Profiles to individual Amazon Music Accounts as described here https://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=17368907011 . When I create the voice profiles on the Alexa App (iOS) I do not get the 4th screen where I can link the voice profile to a Amazon Music Account. How is this done?

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02:41 PM GMT Santhosh(Amazon): Hello, my name is Santhosh. I'll be glad to help you with that.
02:41 PM GMT Michael: Hello Santhosh
02:43 PM GMT Santhosh: Just to confirm you are looking to about settingup the voice profiles ?
02:43 PM GMT Michael: Specifically I want to link Alexa Voice Profiles to individual Amazon Music Accounts as per the link above
02:44 PM GMT Michael: I have created the voice profiles already
but do not get the 4th screen
02:46 PM GMT Santhosh: No worries.
Here is the link for the alexa voice profile setup.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=202199440
Please check this one.
02:49 PM GMT Michael: Thanks, I have done a lot of research already and have seen this. I can successfully create the voice profiles. the echos can recognise the voice profiles. But this does not show me how to link the Alexa Voice Profiles to individual Amazon Music Accounts .
02:50 PM GMT Santhosh: Let me connect you to a member of our alexa team. It will only take a moment.
02:51 PM GMT Sumit Kumar(Amazon): Hello, my name is Sumit. I am from Digital technical team. I'll be happy to help you today.
02:52 PM GMT Michael: Hello Sumit
02:54 PM GMT Sumit Kumar: I am sorry to inform you that this feature is currently available only in Amazon.com.
It has not yet been released in UK.
02:54 PM GMT Michael: But on this UK page https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=202199330 one of the features listed is “MUSIC: if you have the Amazon Music Unlimited Family Plan, Alexa customizes music playback based on voice”. It is the last line.
02:58 PM GMT Sumit Kumar: Let me check this for you.
02:59 PM GMT Sumit Kumar: I see that you're on free trial.
It is only applicable to paid plan.
Once the free trial is over, you will be able to use the feature.
02:59 PM GMT Michael: Really, show me in the T&Cs
03:00 PM GMT Sumit Kumar: In the help pages, it has not clearly written, I am sorry for that.
I will make sure to forward this to our team to correct this.
03:00 PM GMT Michael: I would like to speak to a manager please
03:00 PM GMT Sumit Kumar: This is the highest level of escalation.
03:01 PM GMT Michael: no it is not]
please can I speak to a manger
03:01 PM GMT Sumit Kumar: I am telling you, this is the highest level of escalation.
03:02 PM GMT Michael: I would like to make an official complaint, how do i do that.
03:02 PM GMT Sumit Kumar: You can write your complain to cs-reply@amazon.co.uk.
03:03 PM GMT Michael: what help pages is this writtern in... Please be specific with a URL link
03:04 PM GMT Sumit Kumar: I am sorry, the information we have in our internal resources.
But, I will forward the concern so that it will be specified in our help pages.
03:06 PM GMT Michael: I am disappointed with this, Amazon have falsely advertised the Echos and Amazon Music Unlimited!
03:06 PM GMT Sumit Kumar: I am really sorry for the inconvenience.
03:06 PM GMT Michael: Sorry does not do anything. In this case they are empty words
Good bye
03:06 PM GMT Sumit Kumar: For your inconvenience experience, I have added 5 GBP of credit in your account.

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Thanks mr_a, that's interesting as I'm currently on the free Family Plan too from the code that was available during Black Friday.

 

However, surely the purpose of a free trial is to be able to try out all the features before committing to payment.

“our next step will be to start testing the experience in a few hundred homes at first, and a few thousand homes in the coming months.  Our intent is to get important feedback from listeners in the real world before we launch.”

 

Some companies know how it works

Quote from Bungalow Bill >>

Thanks mr_a, that's interesting as I'm currently on the free Family Plan too from the code that was available during Black Friday.

 

However, surely the purpose of a free trial is to be able to try out all the features before committing to payment.

 I agree, I don't think the information they provided to me is accurate - probably just a stalling tactic

Quote from BlueOfTheNight >>

“our next step will be to start testing the experience in a few hundred homes at first, and a few thousand homes in the coming months.  Our intent is to get important feedback from listeners in the real world before we launch.”

 

Some companies know how it works

 Well at least Sonos admitted to field testing first. 

I seem to be missing the point.

The point is that the system is not ready and Amazon are still field testing (a.k.a getting the public to test it for them)  in the USA

Interesting, I did wonder if the trial would make any difference but, like you, I suspect it doesn't. Several of the CS people I spoke to asked if I was on the trial but then didn't say anything further... I am sure they would have if aware it made a difference. Though cs knowledge seems patchy at best.

 

For the moment my daughters are creating playlists in their own AMUF accounts and then sharing them via email with me to so I can import them to create "followed playlists" in mine; they can then manage them in their own account but play them on any Echo registered to me.  Ugly workaround which messes up my account, but does what they need for the time being.

 

Dave

 

Dave the whole thing is an ugly work around, it really frustrating. Customer Support is the one thing that Amazon does not do well, it really lets them down

Evening all,

 

Does anyone have an update on this problem? I am experiencing the same, my setup is very simple with just 2 people, setup as follows;

 

1 Echo Show setup on my account. My partner logs into Alexa app using my login details, but has set up her own voice profile, as have I.

 

Can confirm these voice profiles work as when we say ‘show my contacts’ Alexa returns our different set of contacts, great!

 

However, I have Amazon Unlimited Family Music (30 day free trial - does this make a difference) again with one account each but there is no way to assign an account to a voice profile, spent hours and hours trying to no avail.

 

Do we have a firm answer on whether it’s even possible in the UK or am I doing something wrong.

 

Cheers! Jon. 

No new updates, looking at some of the other forums and facebook groups others are in the same boat.

Thanks Mr A - such a shame as it’s such a promising feature, it’s the reason I am trialling the Amazon eco system first. I need devices for 11 rooms and if this isn’t sorted then I guess I’ll be looking for other technology.

 

If there is anything I can do please just let me know.

 

Cheers, Jon. 

Hi,

 

Stumbled on this thread as I'm trying to do something similar.

 

I have 6 Echo's in our house in the UK, we have two adults and two children. I'm doing the free family music plan which appears to allow dix people to join, two adults and four children. I want my two kids to have access to their own music accounts as I have zero interest in their music and vice versa.

 

I've got the free months trial of the Amazon Family subscription and to be honest all I want to do is create three more accounts for the family and let them switch accounts so they can listen to their music and playlists and I can have my lists. This should be difficult to do, yet its now 15:34 and I've been at this since 09:00.

 

I've created accounts on Amazon for them. I think they are linked to my account. I've downloaded the Alexa app to their iPhones and that seems to work. We've agreed everything apart from Amazon pillaging their contacts, thats a step too far. I'm not aware of anything being a Beta trial going through field testing though. 

 

However every time I ask to switch an account, I get Alexa telling me that "that user needs to sign the terms of use in the Alexa App". There are no T&C's to sign in the Alexa App. 

 

Perhaps this is due to the free subscription status that you have reported. Amazon customer support is beyond useless as per normal as is the online help. 

 

Is this the same problem that other people have?

 

Thanks

Rob

Hi, to to clarify there is

 

• Amazon Household (Two Adult Amazon Accounts and 4 child accounts) and
• Amazon Music Unlimited Music Family Plan (Six music accounts or listen to six streams using a shared account e.g. on Echos) and
• Alexa Voice Profiles (limitations not known to me)

They are different things (provided by the same company). My experience so far is that in the UK integrating these in a family/household environment seamlessly is not possible. Any integration is clunky or involves some kind of work around, which in turn requires some loss of functionality elsewhere.

 

Amazon Household, you can add ONE adult amazon account the household. https://www.amazon.co.uk/myh/households (to have a total of two). You can add child accounts (I read somewhere it was designed for ages up to 12yrs) but as far as I can tell it has no effect on the way echos work i.e. child accounts can't be used on echos. This may be the issue you are having with the T&Cs. Under the T&Cs 13 is the minimum age limit to use Amazon Music Unlimited Family which in turns needs an Amazon Account.... The additional adult account can see all the echo devices and allows you to share some other amazon services.

 

Alexa Voice Profiles, to create them you need to logout of the Alexa App (Menu...Settings...scroll down and logout). When you login you will be given the option to create voice profiles. With voice profiles and if you have the Amazon Music Unlimited Family Plan, Alexa customizes music playback based on voice.  The idea is that your voice profile is linked to the amazon music account. Unfortunately it does  not appear to be available in the UK or on the trial version. The US version looks something like this https://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=17368907011 . There is no real way to manage these voice profiles e.g. deleting, linking voice profiles to amazon music accounts. I can't see how you link anything to the voice profiles. 

 

Music on Echo: As far as music goes, in a family/home environments depending on your requirements it can get complicated. I have been playing around with Spotify Premium Family and Amazon Music Unlimited Family, this is what I have worked out so far for the UK, the USA offering seems to be more advanced than ours..

 

Echos on separate Accounts: will mean that you can all have your own music accounts ((Amazon Music Unlimited or Spotify Premium)&(individual or family plans)) and any personalised recommendations will be personal to you. The downside is that you loose the "announce" feature and your ability to listen to your music in your account is restricted to specific echos (the Echos registered to your account). And I suspect that a host of other features like shared shopping lists, shared calendars and control of electrical equipment in "smart home ecosystems" will be adversely impacted.

 

Echos on the same account: will mean that you have your music on a shared account. With Spotify Premium (incl family plan) you can only listen to music on a single Echo, so if somebody else in your house tries to listen to music on a second Echo then the music will stop playing on the 1st. If you stream using the Echo as a bluetooth speaker then this problem goes away. You also won't have personalised recommendations (Daily Mix) because you are listening to music on a shared account. If you use Amazon Music Unlimited Family Plan it is still a shared account so no personalised recommendations but you can stream to more than one device simultaneously. 

 

Is anyone off the trial version yet?  I'm on the free 30 day period - so based on above that may be why it's not working - but is it also simply not available in the UK - at all?

 

cheers

I am guessing most people started the family trial after Christmas when all those discounted Echos got opened on Christmas day. So it won't be until Feb before we hear any news or I even try to see it makes any difference.

 

As I have already stated I don't think it was the real problem - just a way to fob me off. I am hoping that it will be available, but expecting no change.

So my 30 day trial ends tomorrow and hopefully this feature will then  be activated, I have zero confidence though...

 

I'll update here once I have further news - does anybody else have an update worth sharing?

I will be having a go on the weekend, when I have a bit of time to spend with support to see what story they come up with this time

OK great, thanks.  This is my weekend project also - lets hope we have some success!

It's going to be a quick update as nothing has changed since paying for Amazon Music...

 

So I am now a fully paid up Amazon Music Family Unlimited customer and no matter what I do I cannot link Alexa voice profiles to different music accounts.  I uninstalled all apps, de-registered them, reset all echo devices and started from the beginning (at considerable time and effort), no surprise the feature is not available to me.  If I thought it would make a difference I would contact support but I doubt it will.

 

Conclusion, if you are on a trial and hope this feature will be available once you start paying it doesn't make a difference.  Very disappointing but worth the £14.99 if it helps other people make a decision.  If anyone has had a difference experience I would love to hear it.

 

J

So here is my latest transcript, apparently is is available in the UK, see BOLD highlight. When the rest of the family gets home tonight will try again.

 

Hello,

Here's a copy of the chat transcript you requested:

Initial Question: Hi. I have 4 Echos devices in my house, and am using the Amazon Music Unlimited Family plan. I want to link Alexa Voice Profiles to individual Amazon Music Accounts as described here https://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=17368907011 . When I create the voice profiles on the Alexa App (iOS) I do not get the 4th screen where I can link the voice profile to a Amazon Music Account. How is this done?

10:51 AM GMT George(Amazon): Hello. My name is George. I'll be glad to assist you today.
10:51 AM GMT Me: Hello George
10:52 AM GMT George: Please allow me a quick moment to look into it.
10:52 AM GMT Me: ok
10:56 AM GMT George: May I know have you created Voice profiles on your account?
10:56 AM GMT Me: yes
10:57 AM GMT Me: I want thru the process of repeating all the phrases using the app
10:57 AM GMT George: May I know is there any error message on the screen?
10:58 AM GMT Me: no error messages, just a final screen saying "Voice profile created for Michael"
11:00 AM GMT George: Now is Alexa recognizing you when you say "What's my name" ?
11:01 AM GMT Me: yes, it does
just double checked
11:03 AM GMT George: I have checked and see that your voice profile is connected to your Amazon music family plan.
11:04 AM GMT Me: what about the other family members? How do I connect their voice profiles to their music accounts.
11:05 AM GMT George: They need to download Alexa app and on their mobile using the same account info used to register the Alexa device.,
11:06 AM GMT George: Select "I'm someone else" and create a profile on their own.
11:08 AM GMT George: I also two people added to your Amazon family plan and they can create their profile using the Alexa app.
11:08 AM GMT Me: I have already done that. Spent a lot of time on this and with support. This is not my first call you support. Before I want any more time on this, can you confirm that this feature is actually avialable in the UK now? In the past I was told it was not. So can you confirm this has changed
11:09 AM GMT Me: what family plan?
11:09 AM GMT George: Yes the feature is now available in UK
11:09 AM GMT Me: what is a family plan?
11:09 AM GMT George: Amazon music unlimited family plan.
11:10 AM GMT Me: which two people did you add then?
11:10 AM GMT George: I see two people added to the plan.
11:11 AM GMT George: I didn't add any member to it.
11:11 AM GMT Me: ok
so how do you assicoated a voice profile with the family plan account
11:12 AM GMT George: You can do that from Alexa app individually from their accounts.
11:13 AM GMT Me: sorry I have not seen that setting, can you tell me where it is?
11:13 AM GMT George: They just need to sign in using your Amazon credentials on their Mobile and create their profile on the app so that Alexa can recognize them.
11:14 AM GMT George: Other members need to do it using their mobile on Alexa app.
11:15 AM GMT Me: so is there a setting on the app to check this?
11:16 AM GMT Me: so is there a setting on the app to check this?
11:18 AM GMT George: Yes you can see the once they are added on your account.
11:19 AM GMT Me: Is there any online documentation to read so I can follow instructions now feature is available in the uk?
11:21 AM GMT George: Do you mind waiting a few moments while I look into this for you?
11:23 AM GMT George: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=help_search_1-9?ie=UTF8&nodeId=202199440&qid=1549884130&sr=1-9

Here is the link for you.
11:23 AM GMT Me: ok, I have my doubts this will work, will check when the other users get home and try again.
Thank you for your help
11:24 AM GMT George: Sure, Please be assured this will get this sorted for you.
You’re welcome. Is there anything else I can help you with at the moment?
11:24 AM GMT Me: no
bye

 

 

 

Thank you.
Amazon.co.uk

Thanks for the update, Mr, A.

 

These are the exact steps I took several times overt the weekend, without any luck.  Maybe you will have better luck and really interested to see how you go tonight!  Thanks for the update once again!

OK so another update. I went through the procedure George described above. Still not working, so another hour on the "chat" to support and now surprise surprise is not available in the UK. 

 

Transcript below, relevant bits in BOLD..

 

Hello,

Here's a copy of the chat transcript you requested:

Initial Question: Hi. I have 4 Echos devices in my house, and am using the Amazon Music Unlimited Family plan. I want to link Alexa Voice Profiles to individual Amazon Music Accounts as described here https://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=17368907011 . When I create the voice profiles on the Alexa App (iOS) I do not get the 4th screen where I can link the voice profile to a Amazon Music Account. How is this done?

I have create accounts on Amazon Music Unlimited, they have been invited and accepted.

I have created the voice profiles using the app on the phone, the ECHOs can recognise different voices.

But I can't see how the voice profile and music account are linked.

04:11 PM GMT Ginjupalli Krishna(Amazon): Hello, my name is Krishna.
04:12 PM GMT Me: Hello Krishna
04:12 PM GMT Ginjupalli Krishna: I've read your question and understand your point.
04:13 PM GMT Ginjupalli Krishna: Please allow me two minutes while I look into this for you.
04:13 PM GMT Me: ok
04:14 PM GMT Ginjupalli Krishna: Thank you.
04:16 PM GMT Ginjupalli Krishna: I am checking with my next level. Please give me a few more minutes. I really appreciate your patience.
04:16 PM GMT Me: ok
04:16 PM GMT Ginjupalli Krishna: Thank you.
04:17 PM GMT Ginjupalli Krishna: Thank you for waiting.
04:19 PM GMT Ginjupalli Krishna: I've checked and would like to inform you that this feature is currently unavailable in Amazon.co.uk and is available only on Amazon.com as of now. Our team are working on it and when it is implemented in Amazon.co.uk, our customers will be notified regarding the same.
04:19 PM GMT Me: I have a probelm with that, because...
04:20 PM GMT Me: on this UK page https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=202199330 one of the features listed is “MUSIC: if you have the Amazon Music Unlimited Family Plan, Alexa customizes music playback based on voice”. It is the last line.
Also, I was told earlier is was available in the UK,I can sed you the transcript
04:21 PM GMT Me: Finally, I was also told this feature was not available becuase I was on the trial version, once I went on to the paid version this feature would become available. I can send you the transcript for that too.
04:22 PM GMT Ginjupalli Krishna: You can create the individual profiles, for that you just need to logout of the Alex app and login again.
04:22 PM GMT Me: I have done that.
04:23 PM GMT Me: I have create 3 additional profiles for family members, the echo devices can recognise the voice profiles
04:23 PM GMT Ginjupalli Krishna: I am checking.
04:27 PM GMT Ginjupalli Krishna: Please give me a few minutes. Appreciate your patience.
04:31 PM GMT Ginjupalli Krishna: I am contacting my lead for further assistance on this. I'll get back to you once I hear from them. Please bear with me.
04:31 PM GMT Me: Krishina, I have contacted support several times, everytime I get given a different answer. Do you think we should escalate this?
04:32 PM GMT Ginjupalli Krishna: I am contacting my advanced team on this. If required we will escalate this. I'll let you know.
04:42 PM GMT Ginjupalli Krishna: Allow me two more minutes please. I'm checking '
04:42 PM GMT Me: ok
04:46 PM GMT Ginjupalli Krishna: Thank you for waiting.
04:46 PM GMT Me: OK, still here
04:47 PM GMT Ginjupalli Krishna: Upon checking with my lead and would like to inform you that the voice profiles needs to be linked to the (be created to the) same account
04:48 PM GMT Me: So, are you saying, the devices need to be registered to different accounts with different amazon logins?
04:49 PM GMT Ginjupalli Krishna: Are all the devices your's or you're trying to invite other family members?
04:51 PM GMT Me: this is my family, wife and daughters. All devices are registered to my amazon account.

I am also the subscriber for the music unlimited family account
04:52 PM GMT Me: All the Apps on the phones login to my account
04:54 PM GMT Me: for the music, each family member has been invited and 2 invitations accepted. There users can login to the amazon music app with their logins.
04:59 PM GMT Ginjupalli Krishna: Thank you for waiting.
04:59 PM GMT Me: ok
05:00 PM GMT Ginjupalli Krishna: I've double checked with my lead and this feature is currently not available in the UK. As you're a valuable customer, I'll take this as a feedback and escalate this further.
05:00 PM GMT Me: Krishina, this is really frustrating
05:01 PM GMT Me: I have contacted Amazon several times. Each time the story gets slightly different.
05:02 PM GMT Me: Also the UK website is clear, by saying "MUSIC: if you have the Amazon Music Unlimited Family Plan, Alexa customizes music playback based on voice"
05:03 PM GMT Me: I have been trying to get a consistent answer from amazon since late December 2018
In my view Amazon are making claims on their website that they cannot honour. Really disappointing!!
05:04 PM GMT Me: Please pass this onto a senior manager.
05:04 PM GMT Ginjupalli Krishna: I am really sorry to hear that. I've contacted all of my lead to check this and it is the same. Unfortunately, we won't be able to assist any further on this issue.
05:05 PM GMT Me: Good bye
05:05 PM GMT Ginjupalli Krishna: Unless there is a different issue I can help you with, I will be ending this chat.

 

 

 

Thank you.
Amazon.co.uk

 

Thanks for the update, as we expected.  Maybe this should be brought to the attention of the BBC Watchdog team for a bit of exposure.

Updated the Alexa iOS app today that was released on the 12/02/19, disappointed to report that it makes no difference  :(