Remember, the point of a routine is to set it and forget it — so you use routines for things that repeat, not for one-time tasks. White circle indicates the Alexa routine will be active on that day, while dark circle indicates it won’t be active. Read More: If you select “At Time” you’ll then be promoted to select the time and repeat frequency. Once you’re satisfied with the order, tap “Save” to create your new routine! C. Type what you want Alexa to announce, and tap “Next”, D. Select the devices from which you want Alexa to announce, and tap “Next”. Here’s how to set up Alexa Routines: Step 1: Open the Alexa app and then open the menu. It’s definitely not a bad idea to set your Echo devices to do not disturb while you’re sleeping. A routine that lets loved ones know you arrived safely at work is an example of a routine that you’d only want to trigger on weekdays in the morning. and get your weather , news , traffic and calendar update for the day. When I listen to music, I generally listen to my favorite playlist of the moment. Tap “Save” to create your new routine! I believe you can give Alexa a sleep timer command after you invoke the routine. You can select multiple actions for the same routine… Then tap “Next”. As an FYI if you’re updating the volume, if you want low volume select 10 – 20% (normal volume is 40 – 50% not 100%). In the below example for smart lights, you can set the routine to: There are lots of reasons you might want to play music as part of a routine. Delete, edit or add more actions to an Alexa routine, Schedule an Alexa routine for a specific time, Use an Alexa voice command to kick off an Alexa routine, Kick off a routine when you arrive at or leave a location, Kick off a routine when you dismiss your morning Alexa alarm, A routine that lets loved ones know you arrived safely at work, Make an announcement across your Echo speakers, link your preferred music service account to Alexa, select which of your Echo devices you want to play the music, select which of your Echo devices you want to adjust volume for, select which of your Echo devices you want to play your flash briefing news, select which of your Echo devices you want to tell you the traffic, location associated with your Echo device, select which of your Echo devices you want to tell you the weather, select which of your Echo devices you want to hear what Alexa says, select which of your Echo devices you want to hear calendar information on, To disable the routine, toggle “Enabled” off (it will then show up as “Disabled”), To remove an action, long tap on the “-” next to the action (the action will disappear), Set the color temperature by tapping “Color”. You’ll probably need to manually update the order of the actions to get it right. “Next” will take you back to the New Routine tab. It’s super helpful that Alexa lets you customize the repeat settings to weekdays, weekends or even a specific day of the week. I use 5:59am on weekdays. That way you can easily use the location again. After I say goodnight and that routine runs, I can say “Alexa set a sleep timer for X hours” and the white noise will stop after the prescribed number of hours. Toggle Power on or off. The default is 492 feet (you can’t make it smaller than that), but you can increase the radius by dragging the opaque blue dot on the right border of the circle. Alexa routines let me wake up peacefully as the lights come on and my morning music plays softly. The new feature is called Wait, and it lets you add a timed delay to either an entire Alexa Routine or just a certain action within an Alexa Routine. When adding music to an Alexa Routine, in addition to specifying what music should be played and from which music service, there is now a third optional option to set a sleep timer. The Amazon Echo routines can make life some much easier, but only if you are using them to the fullest. Open the Alexa app, open the side menu (by pressing the three bars in the upper left-hand … Alexa routines let you automatically make something happen (like music turning on or lights turning off) at a specific time every day, upon an Alexa voice command, any time you arrive at or leave a place or when your morning alarm goes off. The new feature is called Wait, and it lets you add a timed delay to either an entire Alexa Routine or … This will take you back to the New Routine tab where you can tap “Save” to create your new routine! For more details, see the Breaking down “Add action” section of this post. As well as playing a generic alarm sound at the right time, Alexa can also be set to play music or a radio station, read out the morning news headlines, and go on to adjust the lights and fire up your coffee machine. Follow the on-screen instructions to set it (for example, you could set the routine to kick off at 6pm, when you say “Alexa, I’m home” or when you leave the office). Open the Alexa app . Or, if you want to control grouped devices, tap “Control group“. One of the cooler Alexa features is the ability to trigger a routine based on your location. “Next” will take you back to the New Routine tab where you’ll select which of your Echo devices you want to play the music (under “From” at the bottom) and then tap “Save” to create your new Alexa routine (note that “Save” will be grayed out until you select a device). Perhaps you want music to turn on when you arrive home or to help wake you up in the morning (this is one of my favorite uses!). Ask Alexa the status of your timers. In order for Alexa to tell you about the morning traffic, she needs to know your daily commute. I selected “Leaves” in the below example. One thing that’s a little counterintuitive is that you don’t select Saturday and Sunday, you de-select all of the other days of the week (since the default setting is every day). A list of your current Routines will be listed, and Amazon will recommend a couple under Featured, just to get you started. Say things like: "Set a 5 minute timer." The first action at the top of the list will be the first to happen and so on. All Rights Reserved. ), and I know how to make a routine in Alexa if sensor is Open or Closed. But in almost every case I can think of, it’s easier to just use a recurring reminder for this. This will take you back to the New Routine tab where you can tap “Save” to create your new routine (or update an existing one)! They set the thermostat to my preferred temperature when I’m almost home. “Next” will take you back to the New Routine tab where you’ll select which of your Echo devices you want to play your flash briefing news (under “From” at the bottom) and then tap “Save” to create your new Alexa routine (note that “Save” will be grayed out until you select a device). “Next” will take you back to the New Routine tab where you’ll select which of your Echo devices you want to tell you the traffic (under “From” at the bottom) and then tap “Save” to create your new Alexa routine (note that “Save” will be grayed out until you select a device). F. This will bring you to a tab where you can name the location and save it. Alexa will now recognize my Sense contact (thank you Wyze! Open More and select Routines. Create a simple recurring Alexa routine that turns the lights on and off and plays music or news. Just follow the steps below to get started with this awesome new feature. “Next” will take you back to the New Routine tab where you’ll select which of your Echo devices you want to hear what Alexa says (under “From” at the bottom) and then tap “Save” to create your new Alexa routine (note that “Save” will be grayed out until you select a device). If you haven’t already, link your preferred music service account to Alexa (Spotify, Apple Music, SiriusXM, Pandora, etc.). Use Timers with Alexa. (For instance, you could program an Alexa routine to open the ADT skill, but you wouldn’t be able to arm your ADT security system.). The order of actions listed in the “New Routine” tab indicates the order in which they will happen. You might want a fairly large radius, for example, if you use a location-based routine to trigger changing the temperature of your thermostat or something else that can take a little bit of time. Awaken as the lights gradually come on and the room warms up, let Alexa brew your morning coffee (all you need is an Alexa smart plug!) Tap Routines. Or, you can assign a specific time for the routine to run. I used to have multiple routines to turn the lights on, play music and report weather as part of my wake-up, but now I can do it with one routine that kicks off at 6:30am using Wait. You can select “Custom” if you have something original in mind. B. A. Scroll down to tap “Weather” at the bottom. As an example, I could tell Alexa “Good morning” after I wake up, which could then turn on the space heater in my home office. Add any of the below 11 types of actions to your Alexa routine. Open the Alexa app from your iOS, Android, or FireOS device; Tap on Routines in the menu; Tap on the plus (+) button to the top right of the screen; Tap on the plus (+) next to when When This Happens; Tap on Schedule; Choose the day and time that you want to Routine to occur at; Tap on Done; Tap on the plus (+) next to Add Action; Tap on Smart Home If you do this, you’ll need a separate routine that runs around your morning wake-up time to set the volume back up again (otherwise volume will be weirdly low all the time). Here are some things you could automate as part of a location-based routine that kicks off when you get home: Busy household with busy parents trying to keep multiple kids on schedule? If you want to incorporate Wait into your morning routine to turn the lights on gradually, make sure the Wait actions are between the light actions as in the example below. Routine ’ s easier to just use a recurring reminder for this hilarious.! 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