Hidden features of Alexa and Echo speakers
These smart speakers can do more than play music and remind you when it is time to take the roast out or pick up the kids. They also have the ability to listen into the room around them to detect certain sounds that can trigger an action.
In your Alexa App under the More tab you can find Routines which brings you to the Routines menu which has plenty of cool routines to add to your smart system.
To add a custom Routine we will need to press the + symbol in the top Right hand corner.
Now we have the New Routine template to work with, so let's start by renaming it to "Dogs Barking".
In order to be able to detect the sound of a dog barking, we need to Add an event in the "WHEN" tab and select Sound Detection.
Sounds like:
- Cough
- Snoring
- Dog Barking
- Water Sounds
- Beeping Appliance
- Baby Crying
Can be used to trigger an action.
Let's for instance set up one for the Dog Barking, so we select the Dog Barking option and then the speaker that we want the action to be detected on and do something.
Now we can select the days and time of the week when we want it to listen for this particular sound, and start a routine either immediately or after a certain time. We will select After sound is detected for: and set the time for 10 minutes.
So if the dogs are barking near the speaker for 10 minutes any time during the schedule we set, it will perform an action.
To add an action we will click on Add an action and choose the option for Alexa to make an announcement, with the announcement message to be "Hey there Georgie girl. Shhhh"
Next we confirm which speaker it will play this message on, either ALL or one particular speaker.
We will choose the Kitchen as the speaker.
Save and Finish, then we can see in our Routines menu the Routine we just created.
If you like you can add more actions to that routine (which we might do), so I might also add a Sound.
Going back into the routine, I can select Add another action and scroll down to Sound. Then I select Miscellaneous and Boing 2.
Once I come back to the routine screen I can hit the finish button to save it.
Now we just need the dogs to bark for 10 minutes in the Kitchen to activate the Announcement and Play the sound.
Other helpful actions are:
- Notification - to send you a notification to your Alexa app on your phone when the dogs are barking (for this routine). If you have a routine to detect a beeping sound like the smoke alarm, it can also alert you.
- Music and Podcasts - play a playlist, song or podcast for your restless pooches to soothe them
- Skills - search the Popular Skills for the Ambient Noise, Fireplace Noises, Ocean Waves or Sleep Sounds to distract your dogs
Routines are a handy use of the Amazon technology and you can create custom routines to help with tasks that you want to be able to ask Alexa to perform and it can happen. Something like going to bed, can be set to start a timer to turn all the lights off in the house 15 minutes after you start the routine. Providing you have a smart switch connected to your lights and integrated with the Alexa system.
Another routine could be to pulse the lights in the kids rooms to indicate that lights will be going out in 5 minutes so they get ready for bed.
There is an abundance of options and opportunities to have fun with your smart system.