Setting up routines or automations is half the reason to get into smart hubs and assistants. Every major hub, from SmartThings to Alexa, lets you create routines, in which you use triggers to cause something else to happen. Triggers can be a time of day, a sensor being activated, someone asking Alexa a specific question, or a smart home device doing something. The resulting action can be that Alexa announces something, or sends an SMS, or turns a smart device on. The options are almost limitless, and Amazon has created a robust list of triggers and actions you can take through the Alexa app. As someone who generally has stuck with Google Home and SmartThings previously, I was impressed with the breadth of options and simplicity that setting up routines allows in Alexa.
How to find Routines in Alexa
In the Alexa app there are a series of buttons along the top; one of those buttons (you’ll need to scroll a bit) is Routines. Select that button. The screen will refresh with three tabs at the top: Your Routines, Gallery and Activity. Under Your Routines you’ll see all of your existing routines (if this is your first time, there won’t be any). Under Activity, you’d see all the instances of when a routine was triggered over the last 30 days. The middle tab, Gallery, gives you a whole wealth of options to inspire your routines and give you starting points. From the Featured Categories list, you can choose Morning and see a long list of possible routines that you might find useful—Alexa can wish you good morning or tell you the weather when you turn your alarm off. Each of these can be customized, but are a great place to go for inspiration. There are additional options, like Popular Routines and Sound Detection Routines, that feature automations that are all ready to go. If you choose one of these pre-made routines, clicking on it will open that routine so you can edit it to your heart’s delight. You can change the name, the trigger, the actions, or even add more actions, and then save it. Next time, it will appear under Your Routines.
Creating a routine from scratch
If you’d like to start from scratch, click on the round white button with the + sign in the upper right hand corner of the screen from any tab. Alexa will ask you to name the routine, and then there are two panels: When and Alexa Will. “When” is to help you set up triggers, and Alexa Will is to set up the resulting actions. If you click on Add An Event, it will open a new panel with every possible trigger you can imagine.
Voice: Define a phrase that can be spoken to your Alexa devices that will trigger the action
Schedule: Set a specific time, or use sunrise/sunset as the trigger.
Smart home: A list of every smart device, and within that, every possible trigger from that device will appear.
Location: Using your phone as the location device, or any other device registered to Alexa, you can set geofencing so that when you enter or leave an area, Alexa is triggered.
Alarms: Set an alarm that will act as a trigger, like a morning wake up alarm.
Sports: If a game ends, starts or hits halftime, you can trigger a routine.
Sound Detection: If you have a device that support receiving sound, like an Alexa Echo, or a pet camera, you can use a sound detected as a trigger.
Echo Button: Amazon no longer sells these buttons, but if you still have one, you can use this physical button as a trigger.
Auto: If your car supports Alexa, you can use events like the engine starting as a trigger.
Recommended Alexa-enabled products:
Echo Dot smart speaker $34.99
Echo Pop smart speaker $24.99
50″ Amazon Fire TV $319.99
Set an event that happens if the trigger occurs
You’ve told Alexa what to look for; now you need to tell Alexa what to do if that trigger happens. There’s a robust list, and you can have many events for each trigger. You might want something as simple as an alarm to sound if a door sensor remains open for more than 10 minutes, and that simple one-to-one routine is easy to set up. However, you could set up a routine for when that door sensor closes that turns on the lights, the A/C and locates your pet on a map, announces to your kids’ rooms that you’re home, and has Alexa say “welcome home” to you. Here are all the possible events you can trigger:
Smart Home: This will bring up all the connected devices and for each, a list of possible actions.
Alexa Says: Decide what Alexa should say to you from a long list of possibilities—including affirmations, jokes, stories, songs, and encouragements—or create something customized.
Announcement: This is a custom message you give Alexa and then decide which devices it should be announced on. This differs from Alexa Says, where Alexa will respond to you only on the device you trigger.
Audible: Choose a book from your account for Alexa to read to you from, and what device it should be read on.
Calendar: Have Alexa read you your calendar.
Calling: Alexa can make a call.
Date and Time: Alexa will give you the date, time or both.
Delivery Updates: Get an update on any packages arriving today from connected accounts.
Device Settings: Change a setting on your phone, including affecting the volume or turning on “do not disturb”.
Drop in Notification: Turn your Alexa devices into a two-way intercom, so you can speak to anyone in the house and when they respond, you’ll hear it.
Entertain Me: Alexa will create a commute program for you, either reading from Audible, or helping you gain a skill, singing songs with you, or giving you the news.
Fire TV: Control your Fire TV device.
Information: Randomized bit of data that Alexa can give you to pique your curiosity, like a mental health tip, stock market update, bitcoin trading updates, or historical facts.
Music and Podcasts: Play any music or podcast from your connected services.
Navigation: Get directions from Alexa.
News: Alexa can be set up to give you local, national news, a flash briefing, which allows you set specific sources, or my favorite- good news, which is only positive stories.
Notifications: Send a notification to your phone.
Skills: Alexa has an impressively deep library of games and skill-building exercises you can pull from for any age.
Sounds: Random sound libraries including bells, crowds, sci-fi and more.
Traffic: Updates on local traffic.
Wait: An extender of functionality, you can add a delay to any other action using this timer.
Weather: Get the latest on your local weather.
How to finalize and test your routine
Once you’ve set up your routine, click the Finish button and you’re all set. You can test any routine, without the trigger, by going to the Your Routines list, and clicking the blue play button next to the routine of your choice. You can edit any routine from the same list by just clicking on the name of the routine. To delete a routine, open the routine by clicking on the name of it, and then click on the three buttons in the top right hand corner. From there, select Delete Routine.
