Each of us has our own morning routine, even if you don't need to leave home first thing because you work remotely. There are still a number of things you can do regularly. Among them is listening to the news to stay informed about what's happening in the world. That's why we want to help you improve this by using an Amazon Echo or any other Alexa-compatible device and its daily news summary.
What is the news summary in Alexa
As its name suggests, and as you've probably already guessed, Alexa's news summary is exactly that: a summary of the most important current events covered daily by various media outlets. But it's not just a simple collection of headlines; it also includes snippets that help you learn more about what has happened, is happening, or will happen. So, if you're someone who likes to stay well-informed but doesn't have much time to sit down and read the headlines of major newspapers, it's a great option.
Also, one of the great attractions of this summary of news on Alexa is that you decide which sources you want to use. So it is enough to choose from among all the available ones. But the thing does not stop there, you could also add other useful information in your summary such as the weather forecast.
It is, without a doubt, a very useful feature that once you start using it you already use every morning in the same way that you use your coffee maker to prepare that first coffee of the day that wakes you up.
How to create and configure your news digest on Amazon
Now that you know what this Alexa news digest is all about, why not create your own. Doing so is as simple as any of the other possibilities offered by Amazon's voice assistant and its smart speakers as well as other compatible devices.
To get started, the first step is to pick up your mobile phone and open the Alexa application. Then you just have to do the following:
- Open the Alexa app
- Go to the More section
- Now tap on the configuration section to access all the available options
- There locate the one that indicates News summary, right inside the Alexa Preferences section
- In the new screen that appears you will only have to add the content of the medium that you want to listen to. For example, Onda Cero news or any of the news that you will have available in the application itself. Regardless of the subject or the country where they are generated
- Done, you got it
As you can see, it is very quick to configure everything, although there is still something else you can do: order the order of the added media. To do this, if you have exited the Alexa application, you will have to enter it again.
Now go to the configuration section again and again to Summary of news. When you are inside you will see that an edit button appears in the upper right corner. Tap on it and you will be able to modify each of the media that you have previously added so that they are played in the order you want.
From now on, you'll only need to ask your Alexa-enabled device for the day's news . You can specify a date if you want to hear the news from a particular day, or simply say "Alexa, the news," and it will tell you the latest available news.
Integrating the news digest into routines
As you can imagine, asking Alexa for a news summary is fine, but you can go a step further and integrate everything into a routine that you can trigger in multiple ways. For example, the routine always starts at a specific time and on days you define, based on an action you perform, when you're in a specific location, or when you're in your car on your way to work and using Echo Auto.
To do this, the process is also quite simple, because it is like creating any other routine:
- Open the Alexa app on your mobile phone
- Go to the More section and once you are there, click on the Routines option
- Now do the usual process, tap on the + icon and start by defining the name of the routine
- Next, set when it will run (when you ask, at a specific time, day, etc.)
- Finally, go adding each of the actions you want to execute, including the one you are interested in, which is the news summary
Done, now when this routine is executed among the rest of the possible actions that you could have created, the news summary will also be executed. Of course, you will have to have previously configured your summary with the sources you want to use. If you don't, you won't get any response.
Always up to date with Alexa
As you can see, being always up to date with everything that happens around you is very easy with Alexa devices. You just have to know all your options and take advantage of them in the way that gives you the most advantages.
What's more, you could play with the rest of the options to ensure that in the morning it gives you only the information related to more generic issues that affect society as such. And either in the afternoon or when you get home, the news from those media that also interest you and talk about topics related to your hobbies.