Tired of Updating Your Evening Alexa Routines as Sunset Gets Earlier?
Just select “sunset” to kick off your evening routine instead of a specific time!
If you have Alexa-connected smart lights, there’s a good chance you have an Alexa routine that turns them on in the evening when it gets dark outside (if you don’t, follow the easy steps below under “Do This Now” to create one!). With daylight saving time coming to an end this past weekend, there was no way around adjusting the scheduled kick-off time for my evening Alexa smart lights routine. As I was making the change, it occurred to me that as the days continue to get shorter, I’d probably need to continue adjusting every week or so. And then I remembered this cool “sunset” feature that rolled out over the summer and selected that instead of setting a new routine kick-off time. Now, I’ll never have to adjust timing of my evening routine again 🙂
Pro Tip #1: You can also kick off Alexa routines at sunrise!
Pro Tip #2: With the brand new Bluetooth smart light bulbs from Philips Hue, smart lights are easier to set up than ever — they connect directly to Alexa, and no hub, new light fixtures or re-wiring required. If you don’t have smart lights yet, tap/click here to check out VoiceBrew’s complete guide to setting up smart lights.
Do This Now: Set up an Alexa routine that kicks off at sunset
- Create a new Alexa routine
- Tap “When this happens” to choose your routine trigger
- Tap “Schedule”
- Tap “Sunset”If there are days of the week when you don’t want the routine to happen, de-select those days.
- Tap “Next” in the upper right corner
- Tap “Add action” to set the actions (like turning on your smart lights) you want to happen when the sun sets
Pro Tip: You can set a routine to kick off up to 60 minutes before or after sunset (say you want your outdoor security smart lights on 15 minutes before sunset just to be safe). When you’re doing step #5 above, you’ll see a “Time Offset” option that you can easily adjust.