How to Create Alexa Routines for Smart Home Automation

Alexa Routines are automated sequences of actions that happen when you say a phrase, at a specific time, or when a connected device triggers them. Instead of giving Alexa five separate commands every morning, one routine handles everything.

A morning routine might announce the weather, read your calendar events, play soft music, turn on the kitchen lights, and start your coffee maker (if you have a smart plug on it). All of this happens when you say "Alexa, good morning."

An evening routine might turn on the living room lights to a warm dim, lower the thermostat, announce "Dinner time" on all Echo devices, and play your preferred dinner music — triggered every day at 6 PM.

Routines are set up entirely in the Alexa app on your phone. You don't program the Echo device directly. Once set up, routines work from any Echo device in your home.

Alexa Routines support triggers from: voice commands, schedules (specific times or recurring), smart home device events (when a door sensor detects the door opening, etc.), Amazon Smart Home events (like when an Echo motion sensor detects motion), and even specific sunrise/sunset times.

Actions within a routine can include: control smart home devices (lights, thermostats, plugs), play music, news, or Audible, send announcements to all Alexa devices, ask Alexa a question and have her answer, wait a specified number of seconds between actions, and send custom notifications to the Alexa app.

This level of home automation used to require expensive professional systems. With Alexa and a few smart devices, it's now accessible at home without technical expertise.