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.
“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.”
“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.
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 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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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?
</td> </tr> <tr> <td>02:41 PM GMT Santhosh(Amazon): Hello, my name is Santhosh. I'll be glad to help you with that.
</td> </tr> </tbody>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.
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
I agree, I don't think the information they provided to me is accurate - probably just a stalling tactic
Well at least Sonos admitted to field testing first.
I seem to be missing the point.
The 3 solutions seem to be RESET / RESTORE FACTORY DEFAULTS / CHECK YOUR REGION. What was the question again?
14 (Yes 14!) accounts supporting my posts for accuracy and help!
The ONLY Wombat given a biscuit for great advice! Woohoo!
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
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.