Subscriber Question Staff asked 4 years ago
Each time I try to find something to do this with I can not specify a “time to play” and know that it will turn off itself.
It is probably something simple and I’m missing it. Thanks for your help.
Daniel Hill Staff answered 4 years ago
Overall, this example is a great chance to start understanding the concept of routines. Once you get comfortable with routines, you will be able to start thinking of other things to automate using this same concept, and will be able to use multiple routines to automate a variety of tasks.
You will need 2 routines. To access your routines, open your Amazon Alexa app and select “More” at the bottom right corner of the screen, then tap on Routines.
First routine: Set up a 70’s music playlist to stop playing after 60 minutes.
- Open Routines on the Alexa app, and press the “+” (plus button) in the top right corner to create a New Routine.
- On the New Routine screen, tap the “+” (plus button) to Enter a Routine Name. Call it “Bedtime”, then push Next.
- On the next screen, tap the “+” next to “When This Happens”, select “Voice”, and enter what verbal command when you want this routine to run. Enter “Bedtime”, then push Next. (Alternatively, instead of “Voice”, you could select “Schedule” and set it to happen at a specific time.)
- On the next screen, tap the “+” next to “Add Action”, which opens up the “Add New” screen.
- Scroll down to “Music”, and tap on it.
- Under Play, enter what kind of music you want – Song, Artist, Playlist or Station. If you have a specific 70s station you like, enter it there.
- Under “From”, select the Music Provider you normally use to listen to that 70’s music.
- Under “Duration”, check the “Timer” box, and change the duration from 30 minutes to 60 minutes. Then push “Next”
- Lastly, choose which device you want this routine to play music from – I would recommend picking “The device you speak to”.
- Then push “save”. Your routine will take a minute before it starts working.
To set an alarm in the morning, you can use a Routine the same way – just the parameters will change!
- Open Routines on the Alexa app, and press the “+” (plus button) in the top right corner to create a New Routine.
- On the New Routine screen, tap the “+” (plus button) to Enter a Routine Name. Call it “wake up”, then push Next.
- On the next screen, tap the “+” next to “When This Happens”, select “Schedule” and set it to happen at a specific time, and set it to repeat as often as you’d like.
You can follow the same steps for the rest of the routine, and make it play music or do something else.
Getting comfortable with Routines is one of the best parts of Alexa!
Joe answered 4 years ago
Here’s another suggestion – Just ask Alexa to set a “sleep timer” for any length of time that you want your music to end.
Having an alarm set will remain active unless you purposely cancel it or it goes off at the prescribed time. If you are wanting to play your music for just 60 minutes, this is all you have to do. After awaking Alexa with the wake word, simply say “set a sleep timer for 60 minutes” and this will be confirmed by Alexa. After 60 minutes, your music will stop playing. You may very the length of time to any number of minutes you want to. This is so simple you do not need to set up a complicated routine.
Great point Joe! There’s always a better way to do something! Thanks!
But I loved learning how to create routines. Thanks Daniel!
I have created a routine to play a particular radio station for 30 minutes, using the exact steps you describe above. It starts playing, but the timer does not shut it off. I tried adding “for 30 minutes” to the original command line and disabling the timer, but it still did not shut off.
My Alexa software is up to date, and all other commands seem to work. I also tried it on several Alexa devices,
Any suggestions?
You can setup a routine to do a custom action and have Alexa do an action that you would say (for example “stop”) on a specific device.