Amazon added the ability for Alexa to start playing content on the Fire TV over a year ago, but it has been limited to movies and shows from Amazon Video. Last month, they announced that the feature would soon be extended to other services. That capability is starting to roll out because you can now ask Alexa to directly play content from Netflix on the Fire TV.
If you ask Alexa, either through the Fire TV voice remote or through an external Alexa device like the Amazon Echo Dot, to play a movie that is available only on Netflix, previously, you would see a search result for that movie appear on the Fire TV. Now, the movie begins playing in the Netflix app without you needing to press any buttons.
It does not seem like the capability for Alexa to directly play content from third-party apps on the Fire TV is finished, because there are many instances when you expect it to directly play content but it ends up still only showing a search result for the content. The feature is very hit or miss, but it’s definitely moving in the right direction. It’s still worth using because you’re often only a single button press away from the content you wanted to play when it doesn’t work to play the content directly.
I have only been able to get Alexa to directly start playing movies from Netflix and not TV shows. Even with movies, it doesn’t always work. Movies such as London Has Fallen, Chappie, Hot Fuzz, and Doctor Strange work perfectly and immediately begin playing in Netflix when asking Alexa, regardless of what is on the Fire TV at the moment. Asking to play The Pursuit of Happyness, which is a movie available on both Prime Video and Netflix, brings up a search result instead of playing from either service.
The new capability definitely still needs some work. Asking to play Finding Dory, which is available on Netflix, only brings up the option to purchase the movie from Amazon Video. That’s because there are two separate listings for the movie in Amazon’s universal search catalog. The listing on Amazon Video includes “(Plus Bonus Content)” in the movie title, while the listing on Netflix includes “(Theatrical Version)” in the title. Alexa always tries to play the “(Plus Bonus Content)” version when asked. Ideally, Alexa and the Fire TV should favor results from services that you’re already subscribed to when asking to directly play content.
Once it’s fully rolled out and content providers have updated their apps to support this new capability, Alexa will be able to directly play content on the Fire TV from many more services. A few that are expected to also adopt the feature include Hulu, Showtime, PlayStation Vue, CBS, NBC, Bravo, CNBC, and NBC News. Since it’s already partially working with Netflix, directly playing content from third-party apps will likely become more and more available over time, instead of all at once.
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Once we get Prime on the Apple TV I hope hope Alexa would let us control Netflix and Prime on my Apple TV Or my Fire stick. And yes Siri should allow the same options. All consumers and companies involved would benefit.
How are you asking?
I don’t have Netflix but I imagine you’d get better results if you add something like ‘from netflix’ or ‘on netflix’ at the end of your ‘play [whatever]’ request.
It seems like saying “…on Netflix” or “…from Netflix” at the end of a request is more confusing for Alexa. I expect stuff like that will eventually be worked out.
Even when we ask using “on Netflix” or similar phrases the Alexa can’t do it.
Its not a matter of saying on Netflix. I have a harmony hub, and Apple TV and a Fire Stick. I can ask Alexa to turn on the Apple TV (which is also the same as switch to Apple TVs input) but if I mention anything about Netflix it switches over to the fire TV input. I watch Netflix from my ATV.
Is there a voice command that takes you back to what you were doing before you started playing the movie?
No. All you can do is ask to “go home” to be sent back to the home screen.
This is driving me crazy. Just got the Fire Stick specifically to get Alexa to play stuff by title. She always prioritizes Amazon over Netflix (for instance, Ash vs Evil Dead, free on Netflix, not on Amazon). I’d love if anyone has a solution to this.
I literally tried to do the EXACT same thing. “Alexa, play Ash vs Evil Dead on Netflix.”
“Getting Ash vs Evil from Fire TV.” *Opens it in Amazon Prime.
“Alexa,burn in Hell.”
“Sorry, I don’t know that one.”
This is the dumbest gimmick, I say ‘play futurama’ it opens Hulu (I don’t subscribe to Hulu). I say ‘open Netflix’, it opens, I say ‘futurama’ and it opens Hulu again. I delete Hulu and say ‘futurama’, it then asks me do download Hulu. It won’t even load Spotify, it’s just a Hulu button. Total garbage
This is a lie. You can open the home screen of Netflix, that’s about it.
Jesus wept. Press some buttons and get over it. Imagine it – owning company prioritises it’s own content in its own product. Who’d have thunk it.
So, tell me please, If you say “alexa, play Stranger things” or “Alexa, play Stranger things on Netflix”, what happens? I’d really like to know.
What happens when you say “alexa, play black Mirror Season 4 episode 2 on Netflix”.?
It opens the show just on Fire TV screen giving you ways to watch.
Alexa is being weird. Asking, “Alexa, play Seven Seconds from Netflix” and she says she’s doing it then a DIFFERENT show comes up onscreen. Have tried clearing cache and date from Netflix and also from Hulu, where same thing was happening. Anyone else have this going on?
It uses the last Netflix profile. How do you tell it to use a specific profile when telling it to play a specific tv show or movie. Some titles won’t play since some profiles are child profiles and don’t include certain mature titles.