The three shapes, and the one thing they share
From the outside it looks like one action. Underneath it is a handover between two different radios, and your Wi-Fi password takes a route almost nobody has described to you.
The short version
The handset locates the speaker over Bluetooth to begin with, since nothing straight out of a box is on any network. Bluetooth carries your Wi-Fi name and password across. The Echo then joins your Wi-Fi on its own and keeps those details permanently — which is why changing your Wi-Fi password later means doing the whole thing again.
Four quick questions. The result points you to the parts of this page that matter for your phone, your speaker and your router — composed in your browser, sent nowhere.
Which phone are you setting up from?
Permission prompts differ between the two.
Two radios, doing two different jobs
The single most useful thing to understand here is that two separate wireless systems are involved, and they are not interchangeable.
Bluetooth is a short-range link between two devices standing near each other. A few metres, very little power, and no network required. It is how your phone reaches an Echo that is not yet connected to anything at all.
Wi-Fi is the connection to your home network and, through it, the internet. It reaches across rooms and floors and carries everything the speaker does afterwards — music, answers, timers, updates.
A brand-new Echo has no way onto your Wi-Fi, because it does not know your network's name or password. Bluetooth is the bridge those two details cross.
Once they are delivered, Bluetooth's part is finished and Wi-Fi takes over for good. The speaker is not left in a permanent Bluetooth relationship with your phone, and you can introduce a second speaker from an entirely different phone without disturbing the first.
Stage by stage
- The app is opened. Nothing has moved yet. The app checks whether your phone has granted it permission to use Bluetooth and to see other devices on your home network.
- The Echo announces itself over Bluetooth. Your phone listens for that announcement. This is why the instructions say to keep the phone close — Bluetooth reaches a few metres, not across a house.
- Your network name and password cross over. The app reads which Wi-Fi network your phone is currently using and sends those details to the speaker across the Bluetooth link, encrypted, in a fraction of a second.
- The Echo joins the network by itself. Bluetooth steps aside. The speaker uses the details it was given to join your Wi-Fi directly, exactly as a laptop would, and the phone is no longer needed.
- It finishes alone. The speaker introduces itself to the manufacturer's servers, links to your account, and usually downloads a software update.
Stage three is worth sitting with. The app sends the details of whichever network your phone is on at that moment. It does not present a list of every network in the building and it does not check that the speaker can reach the one being described. Whatever your phone is using is what the speaker is told to use.
Three things worth opening
Each expands in place. None of them requires anything of you.
Why the two Wi-Fi signals matter here
- What your router decides on your behalf
- Why the app cannot check the choice
- What separate band names change
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Why the two Wi-Fi signals matter here
- What your router decides on your behalf
- Why the app cannot check the choice
- What separate band names change
Almost every router transmits on two frequencies at once — 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz — and usually publishes them under a single network name. When you look at the Wi-Fi list on your phone you see one entry, and there is no indication of which of the two you are actually using.
The router decides. It weighs signal strength where you are standing, how busy each band is, and what your device reports it can do, then places you on whichever it judges better. It may move you later without saying so.
This becomes relevant during setup for one reason only: the app relays the details of whichever network your phone is on at that moment. It does not offer a list of every band in the building, and it does not verify that the speaker can reach the one being described. Where a router allows the two bands to carry separate names, that choice becomes visible and deliberate instead.
Full detail in our wireless network basics guide.
What a discovery permission controls
- How the platforms handle it
- What an app can and cannot see
- Where each switch lives
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What a discovery permission controls
- How the platforms handle it
- What an app can and cannot see
- Where each switch lives
Both mobile platforms treat local discovery as privacy-sensitive and keep it switched off until you allow it. An app that can list everything on your home network, or scan for Bluetooth devices in range, builds a surprisingly full picture of a home, and asks nobody anything to do it.
The arrangement has one unfortunate consequence. When the permission is off, the app is not told "you lack permission" in a form it can pass on. It looks, finds nothing, and reports finding nothing. An app is only ever describing what it is permitted to see, not what exists.
It is worth holding onto that distinction: an app reporting no devices is describing what it can see, not what exists. On an iPhone the switches are Local Network and Bluetooth; on newer Android, ; on older Android, Location, which must also be on for the phone as a whole.
Our app details guide shows each screen.
Networks these speakers cannot join
- Wi-Fi that opens a sign-in page
- Ad-hoc and peer-to-peer types
- Guest networks with isolation on
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Networks these speakers cannot join
- Wi-Fi that opens a sign-in page
- Ad-hoc and peer-to-peer types
- Guest networks with isolation on
A few kinds of network sit outside what a smart speaker is built for, regardless of how the introduction goes.
- Wi-Fi that opens a sign-in page in a browser. Hotel, hospital, library and many campus networks work this way. A speaker has no browser and, on most models, no screen, so there is no way through that page.
- Ad-hoc or peer-to-peer networks. Echo devices connect to ordinary router networks and do not support direct device-to-device network types.
- Networks with device isolation switched on. Some routers deliberately prevent connected devices from addressing one another. It is sensible protection for a guest network and precisely what prevents a phone from finding a speaker.
None of these are faults. They are design decisions in the network rather than in the speaker.
Where your Wi-Fi password ends up
People are often surprised that the speaker holds a copy of their Wi-Fi password. It does, and it has to — otherwise it could not rejoin the network once mains power returns, without the phone being fetched again.
It is worth being clear about what does not cross the Bluetooth link, since the question comes up. The handover carries the network name and the network password, and nothing else. Your account details are not sent from phone to speaker; the speaker collects those independently once it is on the internet. The link is also short-lived, existing only for the introduction.
None of this is unusual — a smart television, a printer and a games console all work the same way. It is simply less visible on a device with no screen to tell you about it.
One consequence is worth acting on. A speaker passed to a relative still contains your network details and your account link until it is removed from your account in the app. That is worth doing before it leaves the house rather than afterwards.
Four things people expect that are not true
A great deal of the frustration around this process comes from reasonable assumptions that happen to be wrong. Each of these is worth correcting once.
"The speaker must be connected to Bluetooth to work"
It is not. Bluetooth is used for the introduction and then set aside entirely. Once the speaker is on your Wi-Fi, the Bluetooth link between phone and speaker is finished — there is no permanent pairing, your phone is not tethered to the speaker, and you can walk out of the house without anything stopping. Some models can separately be used as a Bluetooth speaker for playing audio from a phone, but that is an entirely different feature, arranged afterwards, and unrelated to how the device got onto your network.
"The phone and the speaker must already share a network"
They cannot be, at the start. A brand-new speaker has never been on any network. That is precisely the problem Bluetooth solves. What counts is your handset already sitting on whichever network the speaker should join, because the phone's current connection is what gets described to the speaker.
"If it worked before, it will work again anywhere"
Only within the same network. Whatever name and password the speaker was handed, it keeps on offering them. Take it to a holiday cottage, a relative's house, or your own home after a router replacement, and it is holding directions to somewhere that no longer exists. Nothing has broken; it simply needs introducing to the new network.
"The app is checking whether the speaker can reach the network"
It is not, and this is the one that catches out the most people. The app reads your phone's current connection and passes those details across. It does not test the network from the speaker's position, and it does not warn you if the speaker will be sitting three floors away behind a stone wall. The check that matters — is there a decent signal where this thing will actually live — is one only you can make.
Holding those four in mind turns most of the process from something opaque into something with a shape you can follow.
Common questions about connecting Alexa to Wi-Fi
The questions that come up most often about how the connection works. Each one expands.
Why does the Alexa app need Bluetooth to set up a Wi-Fi connection?
Because a brand-new speaker is not on any network yet, so there is no way to reach it over Wi-Fi. Bluetooth is a short-range link that works without a network, which makes it the bridge your Wi-Fi name and password cross.
Once they have been delivered, Bluetooth's part is finished and Wi-Fi takes over for good.
Does an Echo have to use 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi?
No. Mainstream Echo and Echo Dot models are and can use either signal, including the older generations. You will often read that early Echo Dots are 2.4 GHz only — that is not correct.
The reason 2.4 GHz dominates the advice is range: it travels further and copes better with walls, which matters for a speaker living some distance from the router.
Is a computer any use for getting an Echo onto Wi-Fi?
Not for the first connection. The app has to locate the speaker over Bluetooth while Wi-Fi is still out of the picture, and a web browser has no access to that radio in the way this needs.
A phone or tablet is required — including a relative's, since a speaker introduced from one phone works for the whole household afterwards.
What happens to my Wi-Fi password after setup?
It is stored in the speaker's own memory. That is why it rejoins unaided once a power cut, and why unplugging it and moving it to another room is harmless.
It is also why a speaker passed on to someone else should be removed from your account first — until then, it still holds your network details.
Is it necessary to set it up again if I change my router?
Yes, in almost every case. A replacement router usually publishes a different network name, which the speaker has never heard of, and no route exists by which it could discover the replacement details unaided.
The same applies after a password change or a house move. Nothing has broken — the introduction simply runs again from the beginning.
Check what you have picked up
Three questions, with the reasoning shown after each answer. Nothing is recorded.
Three questions on the connection
0 of 3 correctWhich radio does your phone use to find a brand-new Echo?
Bluetooth. A brand-new speaker is not on any network yet, so there is nothing to reach it over Wi-Fi. Bluetooth is the bridge your network name and password cross.
After setup, where does your Wi-Fi password live?
Inside the speaker. That is why it rejoins unaided once a power cut — and why changing your Wi-Fi password means the whole introduction runs again.
Can the first connection be made from a laptop?
No. The app has to find the speaker over Bluetooth first, and a browser has no access to that radio in the way this process needs.
What to read next
If you would rather be pointed straight to it, the search field on this page runs an automated index across everything published on the site. Tap it and it will offer you the relevant guides. It returns links only — there is no person on the other end, and it cannot see your device or your account.