Amazon Echo Routines

One of the more powerful features of Amazon's eco-system is called routines. Instead of just letting you do one thing at a time, routines can invoke multiple actions from a single voice command. They can also be used to automate tasks without needing you to speak at all.

To begin creating routines, open the Alexa app for Android or iOS, tap the menu button and select Routines. To add a new Routine, hit the + button in the top-right corner.

When creating routines, there are five 'when this happens' options:

1. Voice - Triggers the routine with a phrase of your choosing, e.g. "Alexa, goodnight".
2. ScheduleTriggers the routine at a specific time on specific days (including just weekends and just weekdays).This is of no real interest to us as our contextual smart home can do this much more easily and is a lot more powerful.
3. Smart Home - Triggers the routine through a supported contact or motion sensor (this currently requires a SmartThings or Echo Plus hub). This is of no real interest to us as our contextual smart home can do this much more easily and is a lot more powerful.
4. Alarms - Uses your phone's geo-location to trigger a routine at home, work, or a specific address. This is potentially of more interest to us.
5. Echo Button - Press one of Amazon's big buttons to trigger a routine. This is of no real interest to us as our contextual smart home can do this much more easily and is a lot more powerful.

Echo Button

Amazon Echo buttons are currently not available in the UK. We much prefer our own approach to generic buttons, which is much more powerful and easier to use.

Arrive Or Leave

The potentially most useful feature here is the 'arrive or leave' option but, this is not available in the UK :-(

Summary

The Amazon Echo routines are pretty poor really with very limited functionality and add nothing that our contextual smart home can't do better already.