Your lives can be made simpler by smart speakers by automating some commonplace, easy tasks. This is especially true of Amazon’s Echo devices, which integrate with a variety of cutting-edge home goods and let you carry out tasks using just your voice. While calling Alexa to do various operations is quite simple, having to give a command, wait for her to respond, and then give another instruction is frequently tiresome.
It’s especially annoying when you’re hurrying to get dressed for something like work or a dinner date. The Alexa routines enter the picture here, I suppose.
You may programme a single voice command to start a string of actions with Alexa routines. For instance, after waking up in the morning, you can ask Alexa to “start my day” to turn on the lights, turn off the air conditioner, and even prepare the coffee maker. Sounds practical, doesn’t it? In this essay, we’re going to specifically examine it. Here’s how to programme Alexa to intelligently automate common tasks:
Getting Started With Alexa Routines
The Featured routines on the Amazon Alexa app are the simplest place to start if this is your first time experimenting with Alexa routines. If you own and use an Amazon Echo device, you probably already have this particular app, which is free and available on both Android and iOS.
The Routines part of the app is located here:
- Open the Amazon Alexa app, then choose More from the bottom menu.
- Now find Routines and click on it to access the section.
- Once inside, click the Featured area to see a selection of suggested Alexa commands.
- Any routine from the list can be chosen and entered to see what can be done with that specific command.
- To enable the routine, select Enable in the top right corner of the screen. Once finished, that specific routine will now appear in the Your Routines area.
You’ve now successfully activated your first routine, so that’s all. When you give Alexa the order, she will now start the sequence of actions that have been allocated to that specific routine. It’s that easy. For example, enabling the “I’m Home” routine will cause Alexa to play “relaxing music” for two hours after reading the news from your Flash Briefing.
How to create a custom Alexa routine
As an alternative, you can develop your own Alexa routines to fully tailor the triggers for a specific set of behaviours. To build your Routines in the Amazon Alexa app, follow these steps:
- Open the Amazon Alexa app, then choose More from the bottom menu to create your routine.
- Select Routines next, and then scan the upper right corner of the screen for a Plus icon.
- Selecting that will take you to a page where you can begin building your routine.
In this article, we’ll show you how to activate a straightforward Good Morning routine with the phrase “Alexa, good morning.” We have instructed Alexa to tell us something fresh and fascinating every day after wishing us a good morning. Alexa will then read the weather report, announce the date, and play some Lo-Fi sounds on Spotify.
Each programme can be altered to include any additional actions you desire. Really, there’s a lot you can do here. To check that Alexa performs your intended activities, you can build bespoke actions and even preview them. You can also use Alexa to manage your TV, play an Audible book, stream material from a Fire TV device, connect with smart home gadgets, and more. You can even let everyone know that you’re awake and ready for your morning coffee by sending a message to every other Echo device in your home! Read also; What is Apple Spatial Audio, How Does it Work, and How to Get It?
You’ll discover that many of the actions are self-explanatory when you begin investigating. If those options aren’t sufficient for you, you might also think about using IFTT (If This Then That) to build applets that can carry out practically any task.
Share your Alexa routine with others
When you’ve successfully developed a new Alexa routine that you believe is valuable to share with others, you can do so by following the few easy steps provided below:
- Go to the Routines section in the Amazon Alexa app by opening it.
- Just choose the routine from the Your Routines area that you want to share.
- Once inside, pick Share Routine from the pop-up menu by clicking the three dots in the top right corner of the screen.
- The programme will then create a link that you may share with others or copy to your clipboard.
Keep in mind that anyone you share the link with will have access to your Routine’s details and be able to use it on their accounts. We advise against integrating confidential information into Routines. Read also; How to get Apple Music on your Amazon Echo
Final Thoughts
There’s no denying that Amazon’s virtual assistant can help you out in some fascinating ways, but we believe you’re missing out if you don’t use the Routines function of Alexa. Prior to developing custom procedures, you should start with some fundamental ones. Almost every Echo device supports Alexa routines. We advise you to look into the Amazon Echo and Echo Dot if you’re interested in purchasing one (4th Gen). Both of these are excellent choices for anybody unfamiliar with Amazon Echo devices.
