Alexa, what does my day look like?

Alexa is a great personal organizer and assistant, but to really get in control of your day, you need to add your calendars. Alexa works with Google, Apple and Microsoft (Outlook/Hotmail) calendars, so compatibility shouldn’t be an issue.

You can just ask Alexa how your day or week looks, or what appointments you have. To get to that point though, you’re going to need to do some setting up your calendars with your Amazon Alexa account.

How do you set it up and, more importantly, which calendar systems can you connect to Alexa? We will guide you through how to add your calendar to Alexa so you can ask Amazon’s personal assistant what your week looks like..

What you’ll need

The Alexa app
Your smartphone or tablet
A compatible Alexa device

The short version

Open the Alexa app.
Tap More.
Tap Settings.
Scroll down to Calendar.
Choose your calendar service.
Follow the on-screen instructions.
Choose default calendar for events.
Choose default calendar to be used for schedule.

How to add your calendar to Alexa

Before anything else, you’re going to have to pop open that Alexa app to connect your calendars. You have three options here: Google, Microsoft and Apple. Ultimately that covers off many of the calendars out there, though if you use anything else, you are out of luck as they are the three available.

It’s also worth pointing out that you have to choose one calendar that Alexa uses to add events to so even if you use Google and Apple for example, you need to choose one. Sadly, you can’t have it add things to different calendars.

You can’t set up multiple profiles each with their own calendar either. So if you have a family, or a spouse, it might be worth creating a shared calendar and using that as your “creation calendar.”

You can also invite people to calendar events, but you’ll need to make sure you have them in your contacts and you have an email address associated with that person. If you don’t, Alexa will put that person’s name in your event information, but you’ll have to invite them without Alexa’s help.

Speaking of inviting other people to your events… if that other person has shared their own calendar information with Alexa, Alexa will crosscheck and see if they’re available. If they’re not, it’ll recommend a better time for both of you. Similarly, if you move your meeting to a time that would make you double-booked, Alexa will let you know.

Time needed: 5 minutes

Open the Alexa app
First up, you need to open the Alexa app and head to the ‘More’ tab in the bottom right corner.
Open Settings
Under all the various tiles in the ‘More’ tab, you’ll see ‘Settings’ at the bottom. Tap on Settings and then scroll down.
Add an account
Keep scrolling until you see ‘Calendar’ in the list of options. Tap on this and select ‘Add Account’. From here, you will get the option of Google, Microsoft or Apple.
Choose your calendar
Select the account of the calendar you wish to add to Alexa. Each account has different requirements for signing in. For instance, if you’ve got an Apple account, you’ll be required to turn on two-factor authentication and then generate an app-specific password for Alexa to use.
Choose the calendar for events
Once you’ve added your calendar, if you have a few, you will need to select the one you want Alexa to use when adding events.
Choose the calendar that’s read out
You then need to choose the calendar that is read out when other people in your family ask Alexa what is on the schedule.
Enable announcements
You can then choose whether you enable announcements. When enabled, Alexa reads out calendar event names and start times per notifications set in your linked calendars. You can choose where Alexa announces from – i.e, which Echo speakers, and you can select the ‘Announcement count’ and whether you want to allow event announcement notifications overnight.