Yes / No Action Prompts with Alexa

Have you ever wanted Alexa to ask you something and respond based on your answer?

Well now you can do this and much more with Voice Monkey Flows. In this guide we'll show you Yes / No prompts, and how they can trigger an Alexa routine depending on your choice of answer, Yes or No.

Imagine this…

At 8pm every evening, Alexa says: “Hello, would you like me to turn on the lights?”

You say: “Yes”

* The lights turn on * 💡

How to do this

It can seem complicated but once you get the hang of it, you can create some powerful automation magic!

For this example, Alexa will ask me whether she should turn on the lights every day at 8pm.

This guide assumes you have already successfully created a Voice Monkey "Speaker" device and performed a text-to-speech announcement with Voice Monkey.

STEP 1 - create the action

We first need to create the Voice Monkey Trigger device and the Routine that we will use to turn on the smart lights.

Head over to the "Devices" section: https://console.voicemonkey.io/devices

Create a new Routine Trigger, I’m going to call mine ‘Smart Lights Trigger’.

And now I need to create the Alexa Routine which turns on the Smart Lights.

In the Alexa App, I create a new Routine.

When this happens -> Smart Home -> Smart Lights Trigger
Add action -> Smart Home -> {Your smart light} -> Power On

STEP 2 - Create Your Flow

Go to the Flows section in the console: https://console.voicemonkey.io/flows

Create a new Flow and give it a name e.g. "8pm Lights Prompt".

Add a "Question Prompt" action.

Select the device to ask the question. Add the question that Alexa will ask e.g. "Shall I turn on the lights?". For the "Answer Type" option select "Yes / No".

Now click the "+" icon next to the "Yes" answer.

Select the "Routine Trigger" action. Select the "Smart Lights Trigger" action you created in Step 1.

You can then hit the “Trigger Flow Now” button to test everything is working.

STEP 3 - Schedule Your Flow

Click the "Schedule Flow" button.

Select "Regular schedule" and set the start time for 8pm.

Done! This Flow will now run every evening at 8pm. If you answer "Yes", the Routine you created in Step 1 will run and turn on the lights 🤩

In summary…

Yes/No Prompts are a new tool in your Alexa smart home set-up.

Essentially, you have two components: The action (what you want to happen if you say Yes or No) and the Flow, which asks the initial question and triggers the action.

What will you build with this feature?