Picture of the Echo Dot 3rd Gen speaker box, front view.

How to Put Echo Dot in Pairing Mode

You must know how to put the Echo Dot in pairing mode to connect her to a Bluetooth device such as a smart phone or tablet, to play music from that device on your Echo Dot.  In other words, you’re making your Echo Dot into a Bluetooth speaker.  But why would you want to do that?  Well, an Echo Dot as a BT speaker may give better sound than what you get normally, especially from a smaller phone or tablet that has chintzy built in speakers.  Then you hear a louder, closer to true hi-fi sound for anything you play from your phone on the Echo Dot.  Here we show how to turn on Echo Dot pairing mode so you can discover and link to it on your Bluetooth source device.

What you Need First

  • Download and install the Alexa app on your mobile device.
  • Connect your mobile device to same WiFi network as the Echo Dot speaker whose pairing mode you wish to turn on.
  • Be sure to power on the Echo Dot speaker you want.
  • Connect that Echo Dot to your Amazon account.

How to Put Echo Dot in Pairing Mode

We use an iPad Air tablet in this demo.

1. Find the Alexa App on your Mobile Device

We found it  on our iOS iPad Air as seen in the next screenshot. For us, the Alexa app is on the third home screen page. It’s pointed at by the blue arrow.

Screenshot of the iOS 11 home screen, showing the Amazon Alexa app Icon highlighted.
iOS home screen, showing the Amazon Alexa app Icon highlighted. How to put Alexa in pairing mode.

2. Run the Amazon Alexa App

The app then displays its Home screen as shown in the next screenshot.

 

Picture of the Amazon Alexa app Home screen on iOS, with the main menu button highlighted. How to Put Alexa Dot in Pairing Mode.
Amazon Alexa app Home screen on iOS, with the main menu button highlighted.

3. Tap the Hamburger  or More Control

Find the hamburger item in the top left corner of the screen, pointed at by the blue arrow in the last screenshot. If your version of the app does not have that control, look for it in the lower right corner, labeled as More.

This brings up the Alexa app’s main menu, as shown in the next screenshot.

Picture of the Amazon Alexa app on iOS, showing its main menu, with the Settings option highlighted.
Amazon Alexa app on iOS, showing its main menu, with the Settings option highlighted. How to put Alexa in pairing mode.

4. Tap the Settings Option on the App’s Main Menu to Continue with How to Put Echo Dot in Pairing Mode

We point at the Settings  item with the green arrow in the last screenshot.





This brings up the Settings screen, as shown in the next picture.

Picture of the Alexa App on iOS, showing its Settings screen, with the Device Settings option highlighted. How to Put Echo Dot in Pairing Mode.
Alexa App on iOS, showing its Settings screen, with the Device Settings option highlighted.

5, Tap the Device Settings Item

This brings up the All Devices screen, where all of your connected Alexa enabled devices appear in a list, as shown next.

Screenshot of the -All Devices- page, with an Alexa Dot 3rd Gen speaker in the list highlighted.
The -All Devices- page, with an Alexa Dot 3rd Gen speaker in the list highlighted.

6. Tap the Echo Dot Device you Wish to Place into Pairing Mode

For this demo, we chose the  Thomas’s Echo Dot 3rd Gen  Alexa speaker, although pairing works similarly with all the other Bluetooth enabled Alexa speaker models.

Anyway, touching the listed speaker then takes you to the device-specific settings for that particular Alexa device, as shown next.

Screenshot of the Alexa app -Device Settings- page for the Echo Dot 3, with the -Pair Alexa Gadget- item highlighted. How to Put Amazon Dot in Pairing Mode.
Alexa app -Device Settings- page for the Echo Dot 3, with the -Pair Alexa Gadget- item highlighted.

7. Tap the  Pair Alexa Gadget   Item to Continue with How to Put Echo Dot in Pairing Mode

Find the  Pair Alexa Gadget  option pointed at by the   green   arrow in the last screenshot, in the lower left corner of the page.  You may have to scroll down a little on your device to see it.

This brings up the  Setup  screen, as shown next.

The -Pair Bluetooth device with your Echo Dot- page. How to Put Echo Dot in Pairing Mode.
The -Pair Bluetooth device with your Echo Dot- page.

At this pint, your Echo Dot is in pairing mode, transmitting its BT connection info over the air.

8. Done with How to Put Echo Dot Speaker in Pairing Mode

Now, you should be able to see your Echo Dot on any in-range phone, computer, tablet, or smart speaker, that is within several feet of it, as shown next.

Screenshot of the iPadOS Bluetooth Settings page, showing an Echo Dot as discovered but not yet paired. How to Put Alexa Dot in Pairing Mode.
The iPadOS Bluetooth Settings page, showing an Echo Dot as discovered but not yet paired.

Pair to the speaker as you would any other Bluetooth speaker.  Once the Bluetooth link is made, your Echo Dot announces something like, “Now connected to <your device name>.>.  And once that occurs, anything you then stream on your smart device, will now play on your Echo Dot.





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References for How to Put Alexa in Pairing Mode

  1. Echo Dot (3rd Gen) – New and improved smart speaker with Alexa Product Page on Amazon.com 

Changes History

  • 2021-09-03: Revised the tags and internal links lists.
  • 2020-08-16: First released.