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Custom routines are one of the most convenient features of Amazon Echo – you can use them to start a cascade of home automation actions before bed, or play specific media every morning – all in response to a single request. And now Alexa can Respond to up to seven unique sentences per routine (as opposed to just one) so that you can trigger the same series of actions whether you say “Alexa, good night” or “Alexa, it’s bedtime” or “Alexa, go to sleep” etc. You can also use formulations Completely independent of the actual routine – Alexa doesn’t know the difference.
To set up your custom phrases, open the Alexa app, go to More Menu and select the routine you want to edit. Among “WhenYou will see an option to view or edit your trigger phrases. Tap that and on the next screen enter the wording you want to use – don’t enter “Alexa” separately as this will be automatically added to each custom phrase.
After you’ve saved your custom expressions, you should test each one to make sure that all actions within the routine are triggered properly.
This is probably not a feature you need per se, especially if the phrases your custom routines are already starting up are simple and specific. However, programming multiple sentences can be useful when your children can remember certain words more easily, or when you simply want to converse with obscure or absurd phrases.
Plus Alexa supports multiple languages and can switch between them automatically. (Up to two can be activated at the same time, such as English and Spanish.) So, if you and your family are multilingual or want to practice speaking a different language, you can set up trigger sets for each of your custom routines in either activated set of languages.
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