How to Create a Routine With Amazon Alexa

Smart technologies are more advanced than ever before, and the voice assistants that do the job are utilities like Amazon Alexa and Google Assistants.

Many people know about the basic functions of smart home hubs, but often their knowledge does not go far beyond simple commands.

Truth be told, Amazon Alexa is an amazingly advanced smart home controller that can truly take your technology to the next level. One of the best ways to take advantage of this technology is by using the Routines feature.

Smart devices are certainly useful on their own, but for a truly smart home, you really need technology to work together.

Amazon Alexa routines are a great way to accomplish this by allowing you to control multiple devices through your Amazon Echo device with a single command.

Create a routine in Alexa

There are several steps to start the procedure, but it is not as difficult as you might think. Below, we’ve outlined the steps to help you get smart technology working.

Step 1. If you haven’t already, go to the App Store (iOS) or Play Store (Android). This tutorial will cover the steps on an iPhone, but the process should be the same on any Android device.

Step 2. If this is your first time using the Alexa app, create and / or log into your Amazon account. There is a short setup process where you link the app to your Echo device, but the process is pretty straightforward and self-explanatory.

Step 3. In the Alexa app, tap the sidebar in the upper left corner of the screen to expand the app options.

Step 4. Click on Routines.

Step 5. Click “Create Procedure”.

Step 6. Alexa routines are conditional triggers. This means that the system is split into two distinct parts: the event that triggers the procedure and the Alexa response. Let’s start by clicking “When will this happen”. This is very similar to how IFTTT works, which I wrote about earlier.

Step 7. The next screen gives you several options for events. For smart home devices, you will obviously choose Device. However, there are many different smart devices that integrate with Amazon Alexa.

To provide guidance that anyone can follow, we will now click on Schedule. As long as your device is working with Amazon Alexa and you’ve connected it to the Echo, the procedure creation process should work in a similar way.

Step 8. On the next screen, there are two options: “Set time” and “Repeat”. Select the time at which the trigger will go off and the frequency at which it should repeat. We’ll set up our reps every Wednesday at 12:05.

Step 9. This is where you choose what will happen. Click Add Action.

Step 10. On the next screen, you will find several options to choose from. Let Alexa say something on the day and time that we have chosen by clicking on the Alex icon.

Step 11. Alexa is not the most experienced comedian, but let her tell us a joke anyway.

Step 12. Click “Add” to create the first part of the Alexa subroutine.

Step 13. The next screen will show the options you selected. Part of the appeal of Alexa routines lies in their ability to combine more than one action. Let’s add another aspect to our routine by clicking Add Action.

At this point, you also need to choose the device from which you want to play the joke, which is important to remember if you have multiple Echo devices.

Step 14. Let’s select the “Notification” option so that we can receive reminders on our phone.

Step 15. Select the text you want to add to the notification and click “Next”.

Step 16. If the confirmation on the next screen looks correct, click Add to complete the last part of your procedure.

Step 17 This should take you back to a screen that shows a summary of how you structured your conditional triggers. If everything is in order, click “Create” to complete your first procedure!

Step 18. On the Alexa homepage, you should now see your procedure. The blue arrow to the right of your schedule will allow you to edit the task with options such as changing the frequency or even deleting it entirely.

The button in the upper right corner serves as a shortcut to start creating the next procedure.

Feel free to experiment with the different options that Alexa routines have to offer. The procedure we created isn’t entirely useful, it actually just gives you an idea of ??how the creation process works. A distinctive feature of the Routine function is the ability to connect various devices.

With Amazon Alexa compatible devices, you can do things like turn on lights and adjust the temperature when you say “Alexa, good morning,” or dim the lights and play relaxing music at specific times so you can relax when you return. home. from work.

There are other smart home automation services like IFTTT and Stringify, which are a little more complex and offer many useful features for devices that don’t work with Echo.

However, Alexa routines are a great option for newbies to get their smart devices working together to create a smarter, more comfortable home. Enjoy!

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