【Scarlett Fay Archives】

The Scarlett Fay ArchivesAmazon Echo is the gadget that keeps on giving.

Amazon quietly updated its smart speaker with support for connecting to Bluetooth—a feature that the smaller and cheaper Echo Dot has had since day one.

Although no reason was given as to why it took some two years for the Echo to get Bluetooth speaker support, it's still a welcome update.

The Echo's built-in woofer, tweeter and reflex port spit out some pretty good omnidirectional sound (comparable to Logitech's UE Boom). But if you wanted better wireless sound, you were kind of screwed until now.

Now you can pair the Echo to any Bluetooth speaker of your choice, which not only means you can get better sound, but you can also project music from anywherein a room (like on a coffee table or in the bathroom). Before, you were stuck listening to music wherever you placed the Echo.

Pairing your Echo to a Bluetooth speaker is pretty easy to do. First put your Bluetooth speaker into pairing mode. Then, open up the Alexa app > Settings > tap your Echo device name > Bluetooth > Pair a New Device. Once your Bluetooth speaker shows up within the app, tap it to connect and wait for Alexa to confirm the pairing is successful.

And there you go! Amazon recommends placing the Bluetooth speaker at least 3 feet away from the Echo so that there's no interference. "When the Echo device is close to external speakers, it may be more difficult for Alexa to hear the wake word and other requests," Amazon says on its support page.