Amazon this week updated its Alexa voice assistant with a new feature that allows it to kick off a series of events right when you turn off your morning alarm.You could tell it to begin playing a news briefing, tell you the traffic, read the weather forecast, turn on the lights or whatever you want. It's all customizable.
This might make your morning routine easier, since instead of turning off your alarm and then asking for the weather, news, or padding across the room to turn on your lights, you can have Alexa do all of this the second you wake up.
Here's how to set it up:
- Open the Alexa app on your phone.
- Tap the menu button on the top left of the page.
- Select Routines.
- Tap the + button on the top right of the page.
- Select "When this happens."
- Choose Alarm.
- Tap Next.
- Tap "Add action."
Now you can configure what you want to happen when the alarm stops, so I'll walk you through a few steps to get traffic, the weather and a news briefing.
- Tap "Traffic."
- Choose "Next."
- Hit "Add Action."
- Tap "Weather."
- Pick "Next."
- Tap "Add Action."
- Select "News."
- Hit "Next."
Now, at the bottom of the screen, select the device that will read all of this out to you. Pick the Echo in your room that you set your alarm from. You can also select your phone, though the alarm needs to be set through the Alexa app and not your phone's clock app for this to work.
Tap "Save" on the top right of the screen.
That's it. Now, when your alarm goes off in the morning and you dismiss it, Alexa will start to tell you the traffic, the weather and begin playing your daily flash news briefing.
