Invoking a skill at a specific time - can it be done

[louiscar]

It's a question that someone asked on the site but also I had wondered if this was possible. eg.

"Alexa  turn the living room light off in 20 minutes" or " turn the living room light off at 10pm".

I didn't have any joy yet it shouldn't really be a problem since you can ask Alexa to set an alarm which is very similar.

I'd have thought it would have been possible to invoke any skill at a specific time but what do I know.
It would be very useful though, maybe someone knows of a way?

[asianrocker]

you can do it but not via voice as far as I know. You use the routine feature for that or via their own app.

[louiscar]

you can do it but not via voice as far as I know. You use the routine feature for that or via their own app.

Oh absolutely but this isn't the useful function I speak of. We know about the scheduling and I have my light switch on / off every day at certain times which is fine for doing things which you know you want at certain times.

The specific time "Alexa do this in 30 seconds" should still be a valid function that Alexa should handle, they are things we don't want on a schedule but may want to do with a specific delay attached. After all it wouldn't be so good if we had to set schedules up just for alarms it's much better to say "Alexa set an alarm for 8am" so why not for other skills?


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[scottrods]

you can do it but not via voice as far as I know. You use the routine feature for that or via their own app.

Oh absolutely but this isn't the useful function I speak of. We know about the scheduling and I have my light switch on / off every day at certain times which is fine for doing things which you know you want at certain times.

The specific time "Alexa do this in 30 seconds" should still be a valid function that Alexa should handle, they are things we don't want on a schedule but may want to do with a specific delay attached. After all it wouldn't be so good if we had to set schedules up just for alarms it's much better to say "Alexa set an alarm for 8am" so why not for other skills?


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I suspect the reason this is not available, is the fact that the skill would have to be written to allow the Timed/delayed action, not Alexa. Alexa does the Alarm and timer functions Natively. This makes me think that the app/skill is the issue, not the Echo. Just a thought.

[louiscar]

I suspect the reason this is not available, is the fact that the skill would have to be written to allow the Timed/delayed action, not Alexa. Alexa does the Alarm and timer functions Natively. This makes me think that the app/skill is the issue, not the Echo. Just a thought.

I must admit I wondered that then I thought well all Alexa has to do is to actually delay starting the skill but I don't know enough about how the skills work.