Sep 28, 2021

How to Customize and Automate Alexa Flash Briefings

Updated: Dec 20, 2022

Today's article will provide you with step-by-step instruction to customize your Amazon Alexa Flash Briefings. Also, I will show you a Alexa routine using the "Custom" function that will allow have Alexa greet you in with a random good morning greeting and then present any number of automated flash briefings in a specific order. The briefing is played in the morning, within a predefined time frame and it starts to play following on a predetermined device trigger. In my routine, the morning greeting and flash briefings are started when I close my bathroom door, anytime between 6:00 am and 6:35 am.

You can edit your flash briefing and add more feeds using the Alexa app for android, iOS and Fire OS devices:

How to Customize Alexa Flash Briefings

To customize your flash briefings:

Open the Alexa app and tap More > Settings.
Scroll down to Alexa Preferences and select News, and then tap Flash Briefing.
Tap Add Content. Scroll through the options, tap a feed you want to add, and then tap Enable to Use.
You can also search for feeds and sort by relevance, customer rating, or date added.
Tap Settings. Customize the feed's settings to your liking, then tap Manage Flash Briefings to return to the Alexa app settings.
Your feeds will play in the order listed. Tap the toggle switch next to each feed to enable or disable it. To change the order of your feeds, tap Edit in the top-right corner.

How to Add Alexa News Flash Briefings

If you're only interested in news, you can add flash briefings from the Alexa skills menu:

Open the Alexa app and tap More > Skills & Games.
Tap the Categories tab, and then select News.
You'll see a list of the top trending news skills. Tap See More to view all of the available options. Tap the news flash briefing you want to enable, and then tap Enable to Use.