Amazon Echo devices gain Apple Podcasts support in Canada

Apple and Amazon seem to be friends again as the Cupertino tech giant is bringing its Podcasts platform to Echo devices and Fire TVs.

Apple has long been the hold out on Amazon’s Echo platform with Apple Music support not being added in Canada until September 2019. Now, to fully round out its audio offering, the Podcast app is rolling out too.

You can find the Podcasts Skill in Alexa app’s Skills & Games section. From there, search for Apple Podcasts, and it appears. The final step is to enable it and then sign in with your Apple ID to start streaming.

Amazon has shared a list of quires you can launch at your smart speakers to control the podcasting app:

• Alexa, play Stuff You Should Know on Apple Podcasts
• Alexa, play the latest episode of The Daily on Apple Podcasts
• Alexa, resume Someone Knows Something on Apple Podcasts
• Alexa, fast forward 30 seconds
• Alexa, next episode

If you want to avoid saying “Apple Podcasts” every time, you can set the service as you default podcasting service. The steps for this don’t make a ton of sense, but bear with me because it all works in the end.

First, you need to open the Alexa App’s Settings. From there, choose the header called ‘Music.’ On Apple’s support page, it says this section is called ‘Music and Podcasts,’ but in my app, it only says Music, so your mileage may vary. Either way, it works, and once you’re in that section, tap on the ‘Link New Service option’ and select Apple Podcasts.

Once you’ve done that and signed in, tap on the ‘X’ in the top corner, then choose ‘Select default Service’ and select Apple Podcasts.

Amazon mentions that this is available on Fire TV as well, but it really only allows users to use Alexa on Fire TV to play podcasts. There is no proper podcasting app.

Source: Apple