Published: April 14, 2023
Key takeaways
Routines are shortcuts for customers to perform multiple actions with Alexa. They can be activated at a specific time, by voice, and smart home devices. Your skill can create a routine for your customer that launches to a Custom Task.
Learn how to use proactive prompts to help customers set a routine, and how your design should support a customer who wants to manage or cancel one.
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View the Checklist for designing skills with routines.
In this article:
Routines are shortcuts for Alexa, saving customers time by grouping actions so they don’t have to ask Alexa to perform each one individually. There are several ways a customer can activate a routine: with their voice, at a certain time of day, with a smart home device, and more.
Learn more about how customers create, manage, and use routines with the Official Guide to Alexa Routines.
You can create a routine on behalf of your customer that, when activated, will launch your skill to start a custom task. Routines make skills that customers enjoy easier to use regularly – they don’t have to remember and use the skill’s invocation name. They can also be tied to actions a customer performs frequently (such as beginning an action after the customer asks for the weather in the morning). Here’s an example of a simple routine in a hypothetical trivia skill, in which the customer has returned to the skill for at least two days in a row to play trivia, around 10 am:
Note that some of the lines of sample dialog included throughout this article are labeled “(Amazon)”. Your skill will initiate a skill connection, in which it passes control to Alexa (Amazon). Amazon collects permission to enable the routine, then creates the routine for the customer before handing them back to your skill.
Checklist for designing a skill routine:
▢ Select an action/s that the customer would perform frequently and/or regularly
▢ Check that your routine contains one trigger; The routine trigger should be appropriate for the routine you’re offering
▢ Check that your skill has updated content at a cadence that supports the frequency of the routine
▢ Check that your skill’s messaging doesn’t duplicate information Amazon will surface to the customer
▢ Proactively inform the customer of the routines at an optimal time
▢ Don’t block the customer from completing a task / fulfilling their request before proactively offering a routine
▢ Don’t offer routines that aren’t related to what the customer is doing
▢ Don’t include unsolicited content in your routine, such as starting the interaction with an upsell or advertisement
▢ If they ask, tell the customer how they can change or cancel the routine
Depending on the core functions of your skill, you might want to offer a routine to suit a customer need (or even multiple kinds of routines). Your routine can contain up to two actions, one of which your skill can perform. When the routine contains two actions, Amazon Alexa will perform the first action, and your skill will perform the second.
A single-action routine might include launching the skill and playing fresh content in a daily trivia game each weekday at a certain time (see example above), while a two-action routine might include playing the customer’s Flash Briefing each at 10 am before launching a skill and playing a daily fact.
Your skill’s action should make it easier for a customer to complete a task they would do frequently with your skill. It should not be an uncommon or infrequently used action. You’ll also want to make sure the amount of content in your skill is enough for the cadence of the reminder. It would be frustrating if the trivia skill in the above example doesn’t have fresh trivia available daily, yet the routine will launch the skill each weekday.
You must choose one trigger for your routine, which could be the time of day, or something the customer will say.
Time-trigger routines
Use time-trigger routines when the time the customer will want to perform the action is predictable and/or consistent over time. You might also choose it because it is convenient for the customer to perform the action at the same time every day, or your skill aims to help them build a daily habit of taking the action. (See the example in the first section of this page.)
Do: Offer a relevant time and logical cadence for the routine.
Don't: Offer a random time or illogical cadence for the routine.
Voice-trigger routines
Use a voice-triggered routine when the time the customer will want to perform the action is unpredictable and/or not consistent over time, or the customer might want to perform the routine at irregular intervals (such as tracking a flight, or checking a balance).
Do: Offer a voice trigger that sounds natural and is relevant to the subject matter of the routine.
Don't: Use a voice trigger that is a common Alexa task, or isn’t relevant to the routine.
The best way to get your customer to take action and set a routine with your skill is to ask them directly. You will need to select an ideal time to offer the routine, but you cannot control the TTS for the routine (see “Make a smooth handoff” below for more information about the TTS you will control).
A good time to offer a routine might include …
Do:
A bad time to offer a routine might include …
Do:
A bad time to offer a routine might include …
Your skill will need to hand off to Skill Connections for the customer to give Alexa permission to set the routine. Skill Connections will return the customer to your skill after they set (or fail to set) the routine. Amazon will handle some of this dialog, and your skill will handle the rest.
Below is a breakdown of the speaking parts in the first example on this page. Your skill will handle the dialog marked “skill”; Amazon Alexa will handle the dialog marked “Amazon.”
Don’t repeat information that Amazon will surface, such as asking directly to set the routine or letting the customer know the routine was successfully set, in your own skill dialog.
To learn more about routines and Skill Connections read Offer Pre-Built Routines from Your Skill.
Once the customer has agreed to set the routine, your skill cannot further edit or cancel the routine. The customer will have to disable or re-enable it in their Alexa app. If a customer asks your skill to cancel, change, or set another routine, provide a response that directs the customer there.
A customer asks a skill to cancel a routine:
A customer asks a skill to set a routine, when they have already set all the routines your skill offers.