Alexa: YouTube - how to use the video platform

The Alexa app includes various skills that you can use to control your smart home and music playback or manage your personal calendar. Read here to find out whether Alexa can also be used to access the YouTube video platform and how this works.

This skill is available for using YouTube with Alexa

Till now, there is no official skill in the Alexa app that you can activate to use YouTube. Nevertheless, in order to use YouTube on an Alexa device, such as the Echo Dot speaker, it is possible to resort to an unofficial skill. This was developed by a programmer and is available for download on Github.

1. To use the unofficial YouTube skill, first download it at "github.com/mdnahian/YTAudio2".
2. Save it then under the name "YouTube audio" on your smartphone and open the Alexa app.
3. To activate the YouTube skill, please navigate to the "Skills" section in the app menu, select "YouTube audio" and tap "Activate".

Other ways to operate YouTube with Alexa

Alternatively to the procedure described above, there is still a workaround for all Fire TV users to use YouTube with Alexa. Since there is an official YouTube app for the Fire TV, simply install it by going to "Apps" on the device's home screen, searching for "YouTube" and clicking the "Download" button. After that, you have the option to either control YouTube with your Alexa voice remote or pair the Fire TV with an Echo device to access YouTube with Alexa.