Amazon Fire TV gets the ultimate Alexa upgrade for better movie nights

Amazon’s suite of smart home devices, like the Echo Dot and Fire TV, are becoming increasingly integrated, making it easier to control your TV experience through simply speaking a word, and it just got even easier with Alexa Routines on Fire TV.

Alexa Routines allows you trigger a series of pre-programmed actions for your smart devices with a single command, and now your Fire TV devices can get in on the action, allowing you to automate your TV habits and better integrate them with other smart home devices.

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With Fire TV devices now integrated with Alexa Routines, you can use the Alexa app to create routines that will power up your Fire TV device, open a specific app, play or pause a show, and turn it all off when you’re done.

The idea is to streamline and automate your Fire TV experience, making it easier to hop into your favourite shows when you’re in the mood, and get everything else set up just right. 

You can set up the routines however you like; you might decide to set one up so that when you tell Alexa "it’s movie night,” your Fire TV switches on, the lights dim to your preferred the level of ambience, the thermostat drops so you have an excuse to pull out the blankets, and the kettle starts boiling for move night hot chocolates. 

You can create your own routines, or customise from a selection of featured ones through the Alexa app. To add a new routine, open the Alexa app, tap the ‘More’ tab and select the a ‘Routines’ button. Tap the + icon in the top right corner to get started adding your own Fire TV routines.

You can find instructions on how to control your Fire TV device with Alexa routines on Amazon's website. 

Alexa Routines is being made compatible with Fire TV in the UK from today, so get started on your new routines and the next time you want to curl up on the sofa to binge the latest Netflix craze, you’ll just have to speak the word.

If you don’t have a Fire TV or an Alexa-enabled voice assistant hub, keep an eye on the Amazon Black Friday deals to grab one on the cheap.