Estimated reading time: 10 minutes
This guide has been prepared to show you the required steps involved in creating a routine on your smart speaker and then subsequently copying, editing, deleting or disabling your routines. The guide covers all the Amazon Alexa Echo Speaker and Show devices, including those with a screen and those with just a speaker.
Routines are a way of creating automations or sequences of events to make your life easier or more enjoyable. Traditionally voice assistants are seen as something that you talk at and that you are required to always initiate the converstation, however there are lots of use cases where it can be useful for Alexa to talk to you.
When you set up a routine you can think about it like building blocks. You select an initiating Trigger and then a resulting Action or Actions. You can also set them as recurring events on particular days or at particular times. There is also the ability to set a time delay between the Trigger and the Action, and between actions that are used in series.
These routines are great for lots of things, including remembering when to take medication. Here are some examples of things that you might want to try:
It’s a good idea to have a browse through all the options and play about with some ideas to really get a feel for what you could set up to suit your lifestyle. There are some featured routines in the app that you can try also as a starting point.
Should you have any difficulties please don’t hesitate to get in touch at info@tltechsmart.com.
We have also created a series of videos to help you, which you can find on our YouTube Channel. The video that goes along with this guide is below:
Here are the steps to follow to set up a routine using the Alexa app on a mobile or tablet device. In this example we are setting up a morning routine to play the wellbeing skill Kindspace. You will need to first have Kindspace (or any other skill that you would like to use) enabled on your account. You can do this within the Alexa app, or by saying “Alexa, open Kindspace” to your smart speaker.
The great thing about doing it this way is it is fully customisable and once it is programmed in then you don’t have to worry about doing it again. Note that you can add in multiple actions to a single routine, so you might want to have Alexa say Good Morning, then do your Skill and then give you the weather forecast for example. You will see the option to Add actions with a plus icon next to, just tap on Add action to select another action from the menu.
If you perhaps like a slightly later start at the weekend, then you could copy the routine that you’ve just made and make a Weekend version. To do this:
If you are creating a lot of similar routines it can be helpful to name them descriptively so that you can tell which is which.
If you end up with a lot of routines or have a lot of different devices across the rooms in your home you can also sort and filter the list of routines to help you find them.
To edit a skill all you need to do is:
You can also test out any new routines that you create.
The might be times when you want to manually turn routines on and off, particularly if you have routines set-up for when you are away from home, like a security routine or if you have guests visiting.
To disable a routine all you need to do is:
Note you need to be sure that you want to delete a routine as once deleted it cannot be retrieved and there is no safetynet question like “are you sure you wish to delete this routine?” when you press Delete Routine.
To delete a skill all you need to do is:
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