Tech Guide

How to get daily news briefings from Alexa

Source: Amazon

You can use Amazon's Alexa voice assistant for a lot more than playing music or asking the weather. In fact, you can also use Amazon's smart voice assistant, which makes its home on the Amazon Echo, Amazon Fire Tablets and the Amazon Fire TV, to provide you with daily news briefings from popular news sources.

If you have an Amazon Echo, all you need to say is "Hey Alexa, what's the news?" You can also use other terms like "Hey Alexa, what's my flash briefing?" or Hey Alexa, what's new?"

There are a variety of news sources that will be pulled into your daily briefing. Here's how to set them up:

You can choose what's included and what isn't by tapping the three lines at the top-left side of the application and selecting "Skills" from the drop-down menu.


Tap Flash Briefing. This is where you'll be able to manage what Alexa reads out to you when you read out a query. It's also where you can search and add new content.

Alexa settings menu.
Todd Haselton | CNBC


To add CNBC to your briefing, for example, search CNBC and tap the "CNBC Flash Briefing" in the listing.

Todd Haselton | CNBC


Next, tap "Enable."

Alexa Daily Briefing
Todd Haselton | CNBC


NPR, BBC, CNN and other outlets are all available, too, and it's easy to organize what news sources provide coverage first. Tap "Edit Order" and drag the news sources up and down the list to set priority. Tap "Get more flash briefing content," if you want other information like tech headlines, sports news, the word of the day and more.

Alexa Daily Briefing Choices
Todd Haselton | CNBC

Your options are virtually limitless, and your breakfast will never be more productive.

Amazon Echo
Source: Amazon