🎅 Let the Countdown Begin

VoiceBrew is the #1 newsletter for Alexa and Google Assistant enthusiasts

👋 Good afternoon and Happy Wednesday! How is it already almost December? Alexa, where did this year go? What a wild ride it's been, but we're excited to finish the final sprint on a high note. In today's edition, we're going to highlight how Alexa can help you stay on track during this busy holiday season.

📊 Plus, today's partner, Chartr, just did an incredible deep dive on Black Friday spending, the Chinese Covid Protests, and the company that's hiring 150k seasonal workers (cough, cough, it's Amazon, cough, cough). If you're a visual learner, click here to check it out.

Get Smarter With The #1 Visual Newsletter

Ask any avid reader of newsletters, and they’ll tell you Chartr is one of the most unique out there. Chartr’s free, visual email sent 3x/week is packed with beautiful charts, facts and data snacks, delivering the latest insights on business, tech, entertainment and society.

Tackling topics like: “How Disney makes, and spends, its money”, “The rapid rise of TikTok”, "Why 'space junk' is a growing problem”, and much, much more. It’s data like you’ve never seen before – which you have to see to fully appreciate. Chartr explores the numbers behind a story – the deeper context that you can't get from just reading – and then communicates them visually.

There’s a good reason why over 1 million visual thinkers, including 300,000 newsletter readers, use Chartr’s snackable charts and easy-to-remember data insights to better understand their world.

Sign up in 10 seconds and take your office small talk to the next level. It’s free, and always will be. Subscribe now.

The Countdown To The Holidays Begins…

And Alexa can help you stay on track

If you have kids, you’ve probably been asked, “How long is it until Christmas?” several times already. And if you’re hosting a New Years dinner, you’ve probably wondered “How much time do I have to prepare?”

For national holidays like New Years, you can just ask, “Alexa, how many days until New Years?” and she’ll give you the date and how far away it is.

But for more personal events—maybe it’s a birthday, an anniversary, or just something you’re working towards, like a 5K race—you can create your own countdown with Alexa’s Blueprint Skills.

Here's How it Works

Go to the Alexa app and tap More.

Select Skills & Games, then scroll down to Skill Blueprints and tap the box.

Here, scroll down to the option How Many Days, and tap the blue box at the bottom that says Make Your Own to start building the skill.

First, enter the name of the event as you’d like Alexa to recognize it, like “How many days until Grandma’s birthday?” Then use the calendar to tap the actual date. (You can also make it an annual event, or just a one-off.) When you’re done, tap the blue box at the top right that says Next: Experience.

Here, customize by selecting and an opening and closing messages around the skill. Alexa has some suggested ones, like “Another day closer!” or you can type in your own.

You’ll also need to select a closing sound. There are a ton of options you can tap to preview. You can also add a colored backing screen that will show up on your Echo screen when you use the skill. Tap the blue box in the upper right when you’re done. It'll say Next: Name.

On the last screen, you name your skill. The default is How Many Days, which seems perfectly apt to us, but you can also customize it. Then tap Next: Create Skill in the top right and it will create the skill. (It can take a few minutes.)

Pro Tip

It seems like overkill but you need to have an opening phrase, closing phrase, sound, and color to complete the skill. Let us know what skill you create. Hopefully, it's one that can help you keep pace during the final month of the year!

Get Smarter With The #1 Visual Newsletter

Ask any avid reader of newsletters, and they’ll tell you Chartr is one of the most unique out there. Chartr’s free, visual email sent 3x/week is packed with beautiful charts, facts and data snacks, delivering the latest insights on business, tech, entertainment and society.

Tackling topics like: “How Disney makes, and spends, its money”, “The rapid rise of TikTok”, "Why 'space junk' is a growing problem”, and much, much more. It’s data like you’ve never seen before – which you have to see to fully appreciate. Chartr explores the numbers behind a story – the deeper context that you can't get from just reading – and then communicates them visually.

There’s a good reason why over 1 million visual thinkers, including 300,000 newsletter readers, use Chartr’s snackable charts and easy-to-remember data insights to better understand their world.

Sign up in 10 seconds and take your office small talk to the next level. It’s free, and always will be. Subscribe now.