“Consumers often have multiple voice ecosystems in their homes. By allowing our customers to choose Alexa, in addition to Roku voice search and controls, and other popular voice assistants; we are strengthening the value Roku offers as a neutral platform in home entertainment,” said Ilya Asnis, senior vice president of Roku OS at Roku. “Roku customers can get to the entertainment they love faster so they can enjoy more of it.”
Now Roku owners can pick between Google Home and Amazon Alexa to use their voice to control their Roku Player and Roku TV. This new feature will work on Roku devices running the Roku OS 8.1 or newer which should include all Roku TVs and current Roku Players.
To get started open the Alexa app, go to settings and select TV & Video. Next, enable the Roku skill and link your account.
Update: As of right now Roku support is not live in the Alexa app. Roku has announced the new feature and we expect it to be added soon.
Examples of how you can use Alexa to control media playback on your Roku device:
- “Alexa, pause Roku”
- “Alexa, launch HBO NOW on Roku”
- “Alexa, find documentaries on Roku”
- “Alexa, show me comedies on Roku”
If you have a Roku TV, you can also ask Alexa to do things like:
- “Alexa, turn on Roku”**
- “Alexa, turn up the volume on Roku”
- “Alexa, mute Roku”
- “Alexa, go to channel 5.1 on Roku”***
- “Alexa, switch to HDMI 2 on Roku”
*All Roku TV models, Roku Express (3700X, 3900X), Roku Express+ (3710X, 3910X), Roku Streaming Stick (3600X, 3800X), Roku Streaming Stick+ (3810X), Roku 2 (4210X), Roku 3 (4200X, 4230X), Roku 4 (4400X), Roku Premiere (3920X, 4620X), Roku Premiere+ (3921X, 4630X), and Roku Ultra (4640X, 4660X, 4661X)
**You must have Fast TV Start enabled on your Roku TV to use Alexa voice commands to turn on your TV.
*** You must have an HDTV antenna connected to your Roku TV to use Alexa voice commands to change channels on your TV tuner.
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