Amazon Echo and Alexa
Last week we talked about Google Routines and how they can make your smart devices execute a series of tasks with just a single voice command. Our discussion on the topic would definitely be incomplete if we didn’t write a follow up article on how you can set-up these same routines on Amazon’s smart speakers.
As you may already know, Amazon introduced its first Echo to the US market in November 2014. They were the first to market a smart speaker powered by their virtual assistant popularly known as Alexa. This and a finely executed marketing strategy are probably why Amazon holds a commanding lead over its rivals in the US smart speaker market today. In a report released by eMarketer on 18 February 2020, they estimated that around 70% of US smart speaker users are expected to use an Amazon Echo device in 2020. Unless Google is able to pull something really amazing out of its hat, it stands to reason that the Philippine market will likely follow this trend.
What are Routines?
Routines enable smart assistants such as Google and Alexa to execute a series of tasks with a single voice command. If you own several smart bulbs and smart plugs, it would be quite tedious to bark out several commands to Alexa just to turn off the kitchen light, turn on the living room lights, and turn on the living room fan. If you’re using Alexa as your smart assistant, your command will sound like this, “Alexa, turn off kitchen light. Alexa, turn on living room lights. Alexa, turn on the living room fan”. By using routines, you can simply say, “Alexa, turn on Relax Mode”. When you have this command programmed as a Routine, Alexa will execute all three commands in an instant. What would have taken you around 10 seconds to say all three will now take you around 2 seconds to accomplish. If that isn’t incentive enough to learn and use Routines, we don’t know what is =) Now that you know what routines are, let’s learn how to set them up!
By the way, we highly recommend that you read till the end of the article especially if you’ve purchased your smart devices from SMARTLIVING.PH or if you’re using the Smart Life app to control your smart devices. We will be discussing another method on how to set-up routines in Smart Life that can be instantly recognized by Alexa.
How to Set-up Routines in Alexa
1. Open the Alexa app
2. Tap on the Menu icon found on the top left of the screen
3. Choose Routines
4. Tap on the + button found at the top right of your screen
5. Give your Routine a name for easier identification
6. Type the name of your routine. For this example, we are going to use Relax Mode. This is not the command phrase that you will use to activate the routine but you can have the same name and command phrase if you want. Feel free to choose a name that is relevant to you and will make it easy for you to remember the actions that will be executed by Alexa when you trigger this routine.
7. Choose When this happens
8. Since we are setting up routines for your smart devices and you want a voice command to initiate the routine, select Voice
9. Type the command phrase that you want to act as a trigger for this routine. For this example, we will use the same name we gave the routine, which is Relax Mode
10. Tap Add action
11. Choose Smart Home
12. Select All Devices
13. Search for the devices that you want to control after saying your command phrase then enter the settings you want. If you’re going to control a smart plug or smart switch, you will only be presented with an on and off switch. If you’re going to control a smart bulb, you will be presented with power, set color and set brightness options.
14. Once you have programmed the desired settings, press Next. Repeat the process for all of the smart devices that you want to control after saying the command phrase.
15. Once done, you should see a summary of your routine in the next screen. If everything is in order, tap Save at the upper right portion of the screen.
16. You’re all set! You can now use the routine you created. Simply say, “Alexa, [name of routine]”. If you used the command phrase in our example, you will say, “Alexa, relax mode”.
How to Set-up Routines in Smart Life
1. Open the Smart Life app
2. Tap on Smart at the bottom of the screen.
3. Click on the + sign.
4. Choose Launch Tap-to-Run.
5. Click on Run the device.
6. Program the settings of the smart devices that you wish to control after saying the command phrase. You can actually do more than just turn them on or off especially if one of them is a smart bulb since you can also set the brightness and change the color temperature and/or mode. Imagine sleeping with a warm white night light at 20% brightness and waking up to a cool white light at 100% brightness!
7. Change the name of the Task to your desired command. We will again use Relax Mode for this example.
9. Press Save and you’re done! You can now use this smart routine with Alexa. The only difference is you have to say, “Alexa, activate [command]”, “Alexa, turn on [command]” or “Alexa, enable [command]”.
10. If you feel that it’s quite a tedious to say “Turn on”, “Activate” or “Enable” after saying “Alexa”, you can go back to Step 12 of How to Set-up Routines in Alexa. Instead of choosing All Devices, tick Control scene and choose the smart routine or scene you created in Smart Life there. Once you have that set-up, you don’t need to say “Turn on”, “Activate” or “Enable” after saying “Alexa” anymore =)
Now that you know what routines are and how to set them up, we hope that you’ll be able to use this knowledge to set-up routines that will help you be more organized and productive.
If you don’t have smart devices yet and want to learn more about them, please visit our store by clicking on this link – SMARTLIVING.PH. To get more tips and tricks, please subscribe to our newsletter by submitting your email address in the form below. You will also be notified when we have new products and promos. Don’t worry, it’s totally free =)
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