The most useful Alexa routines take over small jobs you already do every day: lights and the weather when your alarm stops, porch lights at sunset, a “good night” command that shuts the house down, and a dinner call that reaches every Echo. You build each one in the Alexa app under More > Routines by choosing what starts it and what Alexa does next.
Each idea below names its trigger and its actions, so you can copy it straight into the app. If the speaker is still in its box, start by setting up your Echo, then come back.
Morning and bedtime routines worth copying
Lights up when the alarm stops. Choose an Alarm event set to run when the alarm is dismissed, then add a bedroom light that brightens gradually, the weather and a favorite song. Amazon’s list of popular routines includes a similar one called Morning Shine. It reacts only to alarms set on Alexa, so move your wake-up alarm from your phone to the Echo.
“Alexa, good morning.” A Voice event suits mornings without an alarm: Alexa greets you, reads your news briefing and gives the weather and traffic. On a shared Echo, tie the routine to one person’s Alexa Profile, or to their Voice ID so it starts only when Alexa recognizes them.
Porch lights at sunset. Pick Schedule > Sunset and add your porch and living room lights. Because sunset shifts through the year, this keeps pace with the seasons in a way a fixed timer never will. The routine needs your location, and Amazon’s popular-routines list calls this one Sunset Lights.
A lights-out hour. For the lamp that always gets left on, use Schedule > At Time at 10 p.m. with a daily repeat. Turn off the downstairs lights and set the thermostat back, a pairing Amazon itself suggests.
“Alexa, good night.” If you set up only one routine, make it this one. Add a Voice event, then turn off the lights, fade a bedside lamp down, arm a connected security system, switch on Do Not Disturb for the bedroom Echo and start sleep sounds. Do Not Disturb won’t stop tomorrow’s alarm.
Routines for the rest of the house
Dinner’s ready. Start it with a phrase such as “Alexa, dinner time” or a weeknight time. Add an Announcement that says “Dinner’s ready” on all your Echo devices, then Do Not Disturb for an hour and some quiet music, the recipe behind Amazon’s shared Dinner Time routine.
Quiet time with an end. For homework, a nap or a work call, create a Voice routine such as “Alexa, quiet time” and add Device Settings > Do Not Disturb > On. Pick specific Echos or All Devices, tick Duration and set how long it lasts, so you never have to remember to switch it off. Calls, messages, announcements and notifications stay silent, while alarms, timers and reminders still sound.
The dryer is beeping. On an Echo that offers Sound Detection, a routine can react to what it hears. Amazon’s popular Appliance Check routine waits for two minutes of beeping, then sends a push notification to your phone and makes an announcement, handy when the laundry is two floors away. Its Calm My Dog routine plays soothing music after a minute of barking.
Coming and going. A Location event runs a routine when your phone arrives at or leaves a place, so the entry lights come on as you pull in and the house goes dark after you drive off. It needs location access for the Alexa app, and some phones also need the app allowed to run in the background. If you’d rather not share your location, a spoken “Alexa, I’m heading out” routine does most of the same job.
Kids’ wake-up. With an Amazon Kids+ subscription and Amazon Kids turned on for the child’s Echo, open More > Alarms & Timers > Add Alarm, set the time, Device and Repeat, then choose Wake-up with Amazon Kids+ Routine and Save. It tells the time, gives the weather, tells a joke and plays music, and you can trim those steps later under Your Routines.
Movie night. Say “Alexa, movie time” to dim the living room lights, turn on the TV through a linked Fire TV and switch on Do Not Disturb. Link the Fire TV first under More > Settings > TV & Video > Fire TV, and turn on HDMI-CEC in the TV’s settings, since routine power control works best with it.
How to build a routine in the Alexa app
Every routine has one event that starts it and one or more actions that follow. The steps are the same for every idea above.
- 1.Open the Alexa app and tap More, then Routines.
- 2.Tap the plus sign (+) to start a new routine.
- 3.Tap Add an event (some versions of the app say When this happens) and choose the trigger, such as Voice, Schedule, Alarm, Smart Home, Location or Sound Detection.
- 4.Tap Add an action and pick what Alexa should do, then repeat for each extra action.
- 5.Review the extra settings that appear, such as which device Alexa uses and when the actions are allowed to run.
- 6.Tap Save.
Give a new voice routine about a minute before you try the phrase. If your screens look different, follow the current flow in Amazon’s routine setup help.
Premade routines are the quickest start. Under More > Routines, open Featured or Gallery (the name depends on your app version), pick one, make a choice for anything shown in yellow text, then tap Enable or Save. A routine a friend shares works the same way once you open its link or scan its QR code on your phone.
Actions that make a routine feel finished
Lights, music and weather get a routine working, but a few less obvious actions make it pleasant to live with. Announcement plays your message on the Echos you choose, or on All Devices, which makes it the right pick for dinner calls and laundry alerts. Alexa Says speaks a custom phrase instead, and Send notification pushes an alert to your phone for times you’re nowhere near an Echo.
Wait puts a pause between two actions that would otherwise talk over each other, especially after a Custom action. Custom lets you type any request the way you would say it, minus the wake word, such as “Set a timer for 30 minutes,” and Preview this action lets you hear the result first.
Control Device > Brightness > Ramp to Brightness fades a dimmable bulb up or down over the time you set, which keeps a wake-up routine gentle. Finally, check the settings each event adds: choosing which Echo does the talking keeps sleep sounds in the bedroom, and limiting when actions can run stops an evening routine from firing at breakfast.
Let Alexa+ write the routine for you
With Alexa+, you can skip the menus and describe the routine out loud, for example “Can you play music and turn the lights on in my bedroom every weekday at 7 a.m.?” Alexa builds it, saves it in the app and tells you whether it worked, and you can add, change or remove actions by voice right away.
Alexa+ can also set up monthly, annual and weather-based routines, such as “close my garage door in the evenings if it’s likely to rain.” If you’re not sure what you need, tell Alexa you struggle to wake up when the mornings are dark and it will suggest a routine. Alexa+ is free with Prime in the US and costs $19.99 a month without it, and you can turn it on from Amazon’s Alexa+ page.
Echo speakers that notice the room
Many recent Echo models can tell when someone is nearby and run an occupancy routine, such as a lamp that comes on when you walk in. Go to More > Routines > +, choose When this happens > Smart Home, pick the Echo, select People are detected or People aren’t detected, tap Next and add your actions. Each routine covers one device, so a second room needs its own.
Models with this feature include the Echo and Echo Dot from the 4th generation on, Echo Spot, Echo Dot Max, Echo Studio (2025 release) and most current Echo Show models. Don’t expect the empty-room version to fire the moment you leave. It usually starts after about seven minutes with no activity, though it can take up to 30 minutes.
Presence Detection uses ultrasound, sometimes combined with Wi-Fi signals, and the sensing happens on the Echo itself, which sends the cloud a signal that someone is present, and no audio. Sound detection also runs on the device, listening only during the hours you set, and no audio is stored or sent to the cloud for it. The Microphones & Camera button turns off the device’s microphones and camera, which pauses presence sensing along with voice control, while the Presence Detection setting for that Echo in the Alexa app turns off the feature itself.
Fixing a routine that stays silent
- Open More > Routines > Your Routines. If the routine shows Disabled, open it and switch it to Enabled, and if it already says Enabled, switch it off and back on.
- Confirm the Echo is on Wi-Fi and every device in the routine shows as online in the Alexa app. If the Echo keeps dropping off, fix the Wi-Fi connection first.
- Just made a voice routine? Wait about a minute before saying the phrase.
- If a Custom action fails, say the same words to Alexa directly, then check More > Activity > Voice History to see what Alexa heard and copy the wording that works.
For occupancy routines, make sure the Echo’s microphone is on, the camera shutter is open on an Echo Show, and nothing noisy such as a TV, air conditioner or another speaker sits right beside it. On an Echo Show 5 (2nd gen), 8 (2nd gen), 10 (3rd gen) or 15, also turn on Home Monitoring in the Show’s camera settings. Moving the Echo closer to where people actually walk helps too.
Found a routine labeled by Alexa that you never made? Alexa can create routines on its own when you set up a new smart home device, a feature called Frustration-Free Automation. Edit or delete it under Your Routines, and switch the feature off in Manage Your Content & Devices on Amazon’s website.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will Do Not Disturb in my bedtime routine silence my morning alarm?
No. Do Not Disturb blocks calls, messages, announcements and notifications, but alarms, timers and reminders still go off.
Can my Ring doorbell or camera start a routine?
Yes, once Ring is linked to Alexa. Choose Smart Home as the event, pick the Ring device and a behavior such as motion, then add an announcement or phone notification. To have a camera record when the routine runs, you need a Ring subscription, and you can follow Ring’s Alexa routine steps for that setup.
How many routines can I have, and can I share them?
You can keep up to 200 routines on one account. Share one from its three-dot menu, and the recipient gets its name, trigger, phrase and actions as a separate copy; deleting your share link doesn’t remove copies people have already turned on.
Do I need Alexa+ to use routines?
No. You build routines in the Alexa app, and Alexa+ adds the option to create and change them by voice.