By Katherine Prescott and Guest Contributor Daniel Hill, Social Media Strategist at Daniel Hill Media
This is your comprehensive guide to Alexa flash briefings
Tap/click to scroll to:
- 7 best Alexa flash briefing options
- 3 reasons Alexa flash briefings are awesome
- How to start listening to Alexa flash briefings
- 4 Alexa flash briefing pro tips
7 best Alexa flash briefings:
With thousands of different Alexa flash briefing options, it can be hard to know where to start. The good news is that you can add as many flash briefings to your Alexa flash briefing list as you’d like!
To add any of the flash briefings below to your personal Alexa flash briefing list, just tap/click the link to the briefing and then tap/click the “Enable” button.
#1. Reuters
People like Reuters’ flash briefing because reporting sticks to the facts, leaving out sensational and opinion stories. If you have an Alexa Echo Show, you can watch it as a video flash briefing!
#2. Cheddar
A millennial take on Bloomberg, Cheddar does a good job reporting tech and business news in bite-sized updates. One reason we like Cheddar’s flash briefing is you can also watch it as a video flash briefing if you have an Echo Show.
#3. Your preferred news source like New York Times, Fox News, CNN, NPR, Financial Times, etc.
It’s no surprise that the big media outlets all do a nice job with their flash briefings — and many of them have video flash briefings as well.
#4. Your preferred local news source
Whether you live in Austin, Burlington, Miami or anywhere else, chances are your local TV station or newspaper has a good flashing briefing to keep you up to speed on what’s happening near home. Just search for the name of the media outlet by following these instructions for how to add a flash briefing to your personal flash briefing list.
#5. Curiosity Daily
Curiosity Daily is an award-winning podcast that helps listeners get smarter about the world around us — from outer space to the depths of the sea to how history shaped the world into what we have today. With 4.6 stars, it’s one of the top-rated flash briefings. Note that it runs closer to 10 minutes.
#6. Business Insider’s Ten Things In Tech
For all the tech news junkies out there, Business Insider’s Things In Tech Flash Briefing will be a great addition to your mornings. In just a few minutes, you’ll be fully up to date on day’s top tech headlines.
#7. Niche flash briefing for your interests
Whether you’re interested in gardening, humor, sports, entertainment, real estate, gaming, social media strategies, healthcare, hearables or really anything, you’ll find a flash briefing (and probably a few!) on the topic.
Here are a few other great examples of niche flash briefings to give you some ideas of what you could search for: The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, The Front Row Entrepreneur, People, Dallas Cowboys, Gaming Observer, Two Minutes in the Garden, The Instagram Stories, Voice Marketing – Daily Beetle Moment, Future Ear Radio and Everyday Positivity.
3 reasons Alexa flash briefings are awesome:
#1. They’re short
Alexa flash briefing updates are generally 2-4 minutes long (some are up to 10 minutes) and perfect when you want something fast.
Since they’re so compact you’ll now have time to listen to a few flash briefings — which means you can be informed on a variety of topics with just a few minutes of listening per day.
#2. They’re available from almost every outlet (and on every topic) you can think of
If you’re not into the 7 options described above, no problem! Regardless of what topics you’re interested in, chances are you’ll find an Alexa flash briefing that focuses on them (there are thousands to choose from!).
Plus, you can add as many flash briefings to your Alexa flash briefing list as you’d like! You’ll hear them one after the other.
#3. Easily turn on your Alexa flashing briefing handsfree just by asking Alexa
Listen to Alexa flash briefings while you’re driving, cooking, running, walking or commuting. All you need to say is “Alexa, play my news” to hear the flash briefings you added to your Alexa flash briefing list one after the other.
You can listen to flash briefings on your Echo speaker or on-the-go via the Alexa app on your smartphone.
How to start listening to Alexa flash briefings
#1. Add different flash briefings to your personal flash briefing list (takes 1 minute or less)
Follow these easy steps:
- Open your Alexa app
- Tap “More” on the bottom navigation bar
- Tap “Settings”
- Scroll down to tap “News”
- Tap “Edit” next to “Flash Briefing”
- Tap “Add Content”
- Search for a flash briefing by tapping the magnifying glass in the upper right corner
- Tap “Enable To Use”
- Repeat steps 6 and 7 for as many flash briefings as you’d like!
#2. To listen, just say “Alexa, play my flash briefing”
You can also say “Alexa, play my news.” If you added Today’s Forecast and Reuters as your flash briefings, you’d first hear the day’s Today’s Forecast flash briefing then the Reuters flash briefing.
If you have an Alexa Echo Show, it will display video for any flash briefings with a video component. And if you have a queue of both video and audio updates, no problem! Alexa will play your mix in the order you assign on the app.
#3. Easily control your listening just by asking Alexa
Skip ahead. To skip to the next flash briefing in your list (say you don’t need to hear the weather from Today’s Forecast this morning and want to go straight to Reuters), just say “Alexa, next.”
Pause & come back. To pause your flash briefing, just say “Alexa, stop.” If you want to come back and listen to your flash briefing later, Alexa will automatically drop you into the flash briefing you left off on.
Pro Tips
#1. Add your Alexa flash briefing to a morning Alexa routine
Create an Alexa routine that will provide your news flash briefing, weather and traffic updates when you say “Alexa, good morning.”
#2. Order your flash briefings so your favorites play first
Just follow these simple steps to re-order the flash briefings in your list:
- Open your Alexa app
- Tap Tap “More” on the bottom navigation bar
- Tap Settings
- Scroll down to tap Flash Briefing
- Tap Edit in the upper right corner
- To move a briefing up or down on your list, tap and hold the two horizontal lines icon to the right of the flash briefing name, drag up or down and drop at your preferred location in your list
- Tap Done once you have ordered the flash briefings the way you’d like!
#3. It’s also easy to remove a flash briefing from your list
Open the main flash briefing tab in the Alexa app by following steps 1 – 4 in Pro Tip #2 above. Then, adjust the toggle next to the flash briefing you want to remove to the off position.
#4. Members of your Alexa household can easily subscribe to different Flash Briefings
Just be sure Alexa is set to your account, and when you say “Alexa, play my flash briefing” you’ll hear the ones you added to your list. To switch to your account, just say “Alexa, switch to (your name)’s account.”
#5. Set up Alexa voice recognition so Alexa knows it’s you and only plays flash briefings you haven’t already listened to
When Alexa recognizes your voice, stories and news items you’ve already heard will be skipped. To set up voice recognition, say “Alexa, learn my voice.” This is feature is especially useful if you listen to flash briefings on weekends when many flash briefings don’t post new content. With Alexa voice recognition enabled, you won’t hear the flash briefing episodes you already listened to.
See Also
Alexa Radio — How To Tune into Your Favorite Station
8 Alexa Settings That Will Seriously Upgrade Your Alexa Experience
VoiceBrew 22: The 22 Best Things To Do with Alexa Today
8 Best Uses for Your Alexa Speaker & Best Alexa Speaker for You