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Voice Monkey Docs
Heads up — these docs cover Voice Monkey API v3, the current version. If you signed up before the v3 launch, your account is still on API v2 for a limited transition period and the examples below will not work against your account.

Reminders

A reminder is an announcement that plays on one or more of your Speakers at a set time. It can play once (“tomorrow at 15:30”) or repeat on chosen days (“every weekday at 08:15”).

Each reminder can have:

  • a message for Alexa to say, with variables such as {VM.TIME.TEXT12},
  • a sound that plays before the message,
  • a voice,
  • a Screen to show on Echo Show, Echo Spot and Fire TV while it plays.

Create a reminder

Section titled “Create a reminder”
  1. In the console, go to Reminders and click Add Reminder.
  2. Give it a name and type what Alexa should say.
  3. Tick the speakers it should play on.
  4. Choose Once and pick a date and time, or Repeat and pick a time and the days.
  5. Optionally open Sound, voice and screen to add a sound, pick a voice or show a screen.

Times are in the timezone set in Settings. If you change your timezone, repeating reminders keep their local time (08:15 stays 08:15 in the new timezone).

Use the On / Paused button to pause a reminder without deleting it.

What happens when a reminder plays

Section titled “What happens when a reminder plays”
  • Each speaker on the reminder plays it. Every speaker counts as one request against your plan’s monthly limit, like any announcement.
  • If two or more reminders are due at the same moment on the same speaker, they play one after the other as a single announcement.
  • One-off reminders are removed once they’ve played. Repeating reminders move on to their next day.
  • Every reminder that plays shows up in Usage with a Reminder label.
  • If Voice Monkey couldn’t play a reminder within 10 minutes of its time, it skips it rather than playing it late.

Create reminders from anywhere

Section titled “Create reminders from anywhere”

Reminders really shine when other systems create them for you:

  • API: POST /reminders with a time (at) or a delay (in, like 45m). Give it your own externalId and creating it again replaces it instead of adding another, which is handy for things that move, like calendar events.
  • Home Assistant: when the washing machine starts, create a reminder in: 45m that says “The washing is done”. If the machine finishes early, delete it by its externalId.
  • AI assistants: ask “Remind the kids at 8:15 to put their shoes on” and the assistant uses the create_reminder tool.
  • Anything that can make an HTTP request: IFTTT, Node-RED, scripts, cron jobs.

Plan limits

Section titled “Plan limits”
Free Hobby Ultimate
Reminders 3 50 Unlimited
One-off reminders yes yes yes
Repeating reminders – yes yes

Legacy Free and Legacy Pro accounts get the Free allowance; Legacy Premium gets the Hobby allowance.

If you move to a plan without repeating reminders, they stay in your account but don’t play until you upgrade again (or switch them to one-off).

Troubleshooting

Section titled “Troubleshooting”
  • Nothing played: check the reminder’s speaker is still set up, then look in Usage for a failed entry. A reminder is skipped if all of its speakers have been deleted.
  • It played at the wrong time: check the timezone in Settings.
  • “Repeating reminders are available on the Hobby and Ultimate plans”: your plan only includes one-off reminders.