One of the biggest appeals of smart speakers,
like the Amazon Echo, is its ability
to create routines for your day.
These work best if you have smart home devices
but you don't necessarily need them to tell
what you need in your day.
Without smart gear, you can set up a morning routine
that gives you the news, weather and traffic
or one that reminds you to take out the garbage every week.
I'll show you how to create routines
with and without smart devices
so you can get a little help in your everyday life.
But before we get into it,
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All right, let's get into it.
For this example, I wanna set a morning routine for myself
using my Echo Dot.
All you'll need is the device and the app.
Open up the app and go into more
at the bottom right of the screen.
Then, select routines.
Within that menu, you can find pre-made featured routines
for a ton of different uses.
There you can find basic routines
like traffic and weather updates
but there are also more elaborate ones
that play lullabies for your crying kiddos
or tell you when your dog barks.
For example, I'll set up one from Scratch
based on my normal morning routine.
Select the plus sign above create routine to get started.
From there, you'll see three fields for you to fill out.
The routine's name, it's trigger
or what you say to start it and what happens.
First, I named my routine.
Then I selected a trigger.
In this case, I went with a simple good morning
but you can choose other triggers like time,
location of your phone, or sounds around your house.
Next, I selected a few actions.
So, when I say good morning to my device,
it tells me the date, the time,
gives me a quick news update and a weather forecast.
Once you're done,
select which device you want this routine linked to.
In my case, I only have one Echo Dot
so that was pretty easy.
But if you have multiple devices,
you can assign a routine like this one
to your kitchen or your bedroom.
So, that's a simple routine.
Let's see what one looks like with extra devices
like smart plugs and bolts.
Alexa works with a zoo of smart home gadgets
that can do anything from close your blinds and garage door
to simple things like control, lights, and switches.
For this example, I'll keep it simple
and use my wise bulb color that I have downstairs,
just outside of my home office.
Setting up this routine works just like the simple ones
without accessories too.
Here's how I did mine.
Go to routines, then click the plus sign in the upper right
because I've already got a few listed,
that icons just moved up to the top corner.
Then I went through similar steps of naming the routine
and selecting a trigger.
In this case, the trigger is another voice command -
I'm done for the day.
Next, I selected smart home.
That's where I can find my wise bulbs,
connected with my Echo Dot
and I chose the one in the basement
because that's the one where my office is.
Then, I selected power and off.
This tells the light bulb to turn off
when I say this trigger.
So, now when I tell my speaker that I'm done with work,
that light downstairs will automatically turn off.
I set another one while I was at it
to turn the light bulb red
when I tell my speaker that I'm in a meeting.
Pretty cool.
The cool thing about routines with Alexa is that
the more stuff you have connected to your smart speaker,
the more stuff you can do with your routines.
Smart locks, security systems, smart buttons,
bulbs, and more can all work together
and make your day run a little more smoothly.
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(light music)