Kodi is a popular media center for users, and part of its popularity is the customization it offers. You can customize your Kodi installation with new add-ons, themes, and features to make your Kodi experience even better.
At the moment, Kodi doesn’t come with any options for voice control built in. If you want to control Kodi using your voice, follow along below.
If you’ve not used it before, you can install Kodi on Linux pretty easily. Windows users can set Kodi up on their PC with ease, too.
Using Google Assistant with the Yatse App
Yatse is one of the most popular third-party remote control apps for Kodi. Available for Android, it offers you a full set of features for you to control Kodi from your smartphone.
One of the most interesting features, however, is the voice control options. To access it, click your menu button in the top left, and hit the microphone button.
Using Google Assistant, you can then issue commands via your Android phone or tablet to Kodi itself. There’s a full list of Yatse voice commands available, but you can try some of the more common ones.
“Stop”, “Play” or “Resume” are some obvious commands for you to issue while you’re playing a movie or TV show. You can also use it for search. For instance, “Search for Avengers: Endgame” to search for the latest Avengers movie in your movie collection.
Alexa Voice Control Using Lexigram
You can also integrate Kodi with smart speakers like the Amazon Alexa. Lexigram is a set of Alexa Skills (add-ons) that let you control Kodi with options for standard playback control, as well as an additional skill for controlling your music library.
To start, you’ll need to register for an Amazon developer account. You’ll then need to install the Node.js runtime environment as well as a web server to host some of your server data.
You can self-host the web server you use on your PC or host it in the cloud using a platform like Heroku or Amazon Web Services. Lexigram offers some specialist instructions on how to proceed with this.
Also read: 10 of the Best Kodi Add-ons to Stream Your Favorite Sports
You will also need to enable “Allow remote control via HTTP,” “Allow remote control from applications on this system” and “Allow remote control from applications on other systems” in your Kodi settings to be able to control Kodi this way.
Go to your Kodi settings, then “Service Settings,” then “Control” to enable these. You’ll need to download NVM for Windows and NVM for Linux and macOS. Once NVM is installed, open a terminal or command line and type:
npm install -g lexigram-cli
This will install Lexigram-cli, which you’ll use to set up the Alexa skills. You’ll next need to run the following commands to log in to your Amazon developer account and create a placeholder configuration file:
lexigram login
lexigram init-configLexigram comes with two skills: Koko is for controlling your Audio library, while Kanzi is for your other Kodi control options. Install Kanzi with:
lexigram init-skill kanzi
You can install Koko by typing:
lexigram init-skill koko
Once this is done, you’ll need to add your IP address, web port, username and password to the configuration file your init-config command created using your favorite text editor.
Finally, type the following to deploy your Alexa Skill to Amazon to be able to use it yourself:
lexigram deploy kanzi
or
lexigram deploy koko
With everything set up, you can then use some common commands for playing, pausing, stopping and searching your content and to control your Kodi add-ons, similar to how you’d control Yatse.
Lexigram has more detailed instructions to help you troubleshoot any installation issues.
Kodi Voice Control Made Easy
Adding voice control to Kodi makes your streaming experience even easier. You don’t need to worry about your choice of remote control. You can use your voice to find your latest shows, play your favorite songs, control playback and more.
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