When it comes to configuring the Echo or controlling it without voice commands, however, you need to use either the Alexa App (which Amazon promotes heavily) or the web-based interface (which they’re a bit quiet about). Alexa is a voice-based personal assistant, and for most tasks–like starting and stopping music, asking about the weather, and so on–it’s easiest just to summon Alexa with a command like “Alexa, what’s the weather forecast?”
Most of your interaction with the Amazon Echo will be, by design, voice-based.
