Voice In Canada Flash Briefing #137
Hey there. Now, today I have a very, very cool feature that I want to share with you and it has to do with routines, and specifically, custom routines. Now, before I tell you this feature, I have to give a huge shout out to Jenny Way. She sent me an email and described this feature that she discovered.
And, I just want to say, first of all, thanks to Jenny, and if any of you ever, you know, discover something really cool about Alexa, I would love it if you would send me the information so that I can share with our listeners.
So Jenny, big, big thanks, and here’s the email that she sent out, and then I’ll just sort of expand on this a little bit, explain to you how to do it. So she sent me an email that says that she’s found a cool feature in the Alexa app whereby you can customize what Alexa says when you’re setting up a routine.
Before, as you may know, it was just stock series of phrases that you could choose from, but now, at a particular time, or with a particular trigger, you can choose to have Alexa say something, of your choice.
So it’s a totally customized phrase that you will type in, and Alexa can say that at a particular time. So what does that mean? Well, for one, you can have her give you specific reminders at certain times because you program her to say something to you at a particular time, or when something happens.
Now, here’s the really cool part that Jenny came up with. Is that if you have two smart speakers in the same room, you could use one to say, “Open or start a skill” to the other smart speaker.
It was just stock series of phrases that you could choose from, but now, at a particular time, or with a particular trigger, you can choose to have Alexa say something, of your choice.
And as long as you have named them differently so they respond to different names, it’s a way that you can get Alexa to start any skill that you want, because you would say, or you’d program the first Alexa device to say, “Open skill X” and then the second Echo device would hear that, and it would open skill X, and I think that’s pretty, pretty cool.
So Jenny, way to go for figuring that out. I love that idea. So, this is basically a way that you can now get Alexa to do anything that you want at a particular time. Yes, it will take having two smart speakers in the same room, but this is a pretty neat little hack that you came up with.
So, Jenny, thanks again. I think it’s a great idea. Simply the way you would set this up is you would go into your Alexa app, you click on the settings button, you’d go to routines, and you’d start a routine, and you would choose a custom phrase, and you’d type it in.
So, I hope that is helpful to you. I’m certainly going to play around with that, and I look forward to hearing how you do it as well. So make sure to let me know what you’re doing with this feature. Alright, take care, everybody.
Useful Resources
- Complete List of Alexa Commands
- Alexa-Enabled and Controlled Devices in Canada
- Teri Fisher on Twitter
- Alexa in Canada on Twitter
- Alexa in Canada on Instagram
- Alexa in Canada Community Group on Facebook
- Please leave a review on the Skills Store!
- Shopping on Amazon.ca
- Create a Flash Briefing Tutorial – Free Tutorial to Create your own Flash Briefing
- Flash Briefing Formula – Your Complete Premium Step-By-Step Course to Launch a Successful Flash Briefing that Gets Found and Grows Your Brand
Listen on your Echo Device! Easy as 1-2-3!
1. Open your Alexa app and click on the Menu button > Settings > Flash Briefing.
2. Click on “Add Content” and search for “Voice in Canada”.
3. Click on “Voice in Canada” and the Enable button.
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