New Year, problems with Alexa Flash Briefing

[More4me2do]

For 2018 I enjoyed the Flash Briefing in Amazon's Echo with Alexa. It read the daily text as well as what's new on JW.ORG plus headlines from the JW.ORG news room. However with 2019 the skill for the daily text is stuck on December 31st 2018. The updated version with the 2019 logo still reads 2018's daily text.

 

Since no other skills for reading the text will appear in the Flash Briefing part does anyone have an answer how to fix this or a substitute skill that can be used in the Flash Briefing?

 

The only other option is to enter a lengthy voice command like "Alexa Open JW Library and Read the Daily Text"  to read the text but both of the skills that read the text do not include the date nor the references the text was taken from.

 

Thanks

M4M2D0

[dove]

Could you please tell me how you set that up with Alexa? When I ask she only says 'she's not sure about that'. Is this set up from the jw.org site or jwlibrary app?

[Jeanie]

4 hours ago, Dove said:

Could you please tell me how you set that up with Alexa? When I ask she only says 'she's not sure about that'. Is this set up from the jw.org site or jwlibrary app?

I did mine through Amazon.  It has been a couple of months, but it wasn't hard.  We set up the following 4:

1.  Bible Reading

2.  NWT

3.  Examining The Scriptures

4.  JW Trivia (this is a great one that I am loving to get quick facts and then try to remember them)

6 hours ago, More4me2do said:

For 2018 I enjoyed the Flash Briefing in Amazon's Echo with Alexa. It read the daily text as well as what's new on JW.ORG plus headlines from the JW.ORG news room. However with 2019 the skill for the daily text is stuck on December 31st 2018. The updated version with the 2019 logo still reads 2018's daily text.

 

Since no other skills for reading the text will appear in the Flash Briefing part does anyone have an answer how to fix this or a substitute skill that can be used in the Flash Briefing?

 

The only other option is to enter a lengthy voice command like "Alexa Open JW Library and Read the Daily Text"  to read the text but both of the skills that read the text do not include the date nor the references the text was taken from.

 

Thanks

M4M2D0

I haven't had any problems with our Examining The Scriptures.  It transferred to the new year without a glitch.  I am not sure why you are having a problem.  

 

[More4me2do]

8 hours ago, Jeanie said:

I did mine through Amazon.  It has been a couple of months, but it wasn't hard.  We set up the following 4:

1.  Bible Reading

2.  NWT

3.  Examining The Scriptures

4.  JW Trivia (this is a great one that I am loving to get quick facts and then try to remember them)

I haven't had any problems with our Examining The Scriptures.  It transferred to the new year without a glitch.  I am not sure why you are having a problem.  

 

Do your skills do their job from the Flash Briefing?

 

When I say "Alexa, Flash Briefing" it reads the Daily text first, then What's New at JW.ORG followed by headlines from the JW.ORG Newsroom and finally the weather.

 

I am not talking about a skill that you have to ask to read the text, and the only skill that appears in the Flash Briefing after adding new content is the one that has still the 2018 texts. All the other skills are separate and yes they will react to the voice command, but it will not say the day and date, plus the references where the article is taken from.

 

What is the name of the skill that you use?

[Jeanie]

26 minutes ago, More4me2do said:

Do your skills do their job from the Flash Briefing?

 

When I say "Alexa, Flash Briefing" it reads the Daily text first, then What's New at JW.ORG followed by headlines from the JW.ORG Newsroom and finally the weather.

 

I am not talking about a skill that you have to ask to read the text, and the only skill that appears in the Flash Briefing after adding new content is the one that has still the 2018 texts. All the other skills are separate and yes they will react to the voice command, but it will not say the day and date, plus the references where the article is taken from.

 

What is the name of the skill that you use?

James I will look it up tomorrow after work and let you know what skills I am using specifically.  We use to use the news flash skill but I didn't like it.  I use the separate skills for each thing I want to do. I have a very short attention span, so I do one thing at a time.  For example, only the daily text.    Anyway, I have it all written down for my Mom on index cards so that she is able to use Alexa independently.  Also, I think the newsflash has not updated to the 2019 Daily text.  

[dove]

8 hours ago, Jeanie said:

James I will look it up tomorrow after work and let you know what skills I am using specifically.  We use to use the news flash skill but I didn't like it.  I use the separate skills for each thing I want to do. I have a very short attention span, so I do one thing at a time.  For example, only the daily text.    Anyway, I have it all written down for my Mom on index cards so that she is able to use Alexa independently.  Also, I think the newsflash has not updated to the 2019 Daily text.  

How do you get just the daily text? I get the whole news flash and no daily text..

[dove]

6 minutes ago, Dove said:

How do you get just the daily text? I get the whole news flash and no daily text..

I went to Amazon where you said you set it up but couldn't find the option to do that. I would just like to do the daily text for now for my husband as he can't see to read it..the Bible reading would also be good for him..thank you

[More4me2do]

You can set up in the Flash Briefing (Home Page / Settings / Flash Briefing) different skills. The creator of the skill has to enable the flash briefing capability. At present that is only the Daily Text skill that appears there but it still does year 2018. All the other skills that do the daily text you have to give a specific voice command like "Alexa open JW library and read me the daily text". or another "Alexa open days text" but these do not work in the Flash Briefing where I have set up the What's New on JW.ORG and the JW.ORG Newsroom headlines plus the weather. Everything was fine until January 1st.

 

You have to add the skills from the App (Home Page / Skills and Games) the type in the search box JW and you will see all the skills that work with JW.ORG.

Edited January 4, 2019 by More4me2do

[Jeanie]

18 hours ago, More4me2do said:

Do your skills do their job from the Flash Briefing?

 

When I say "Alexa, Flash Briefing" it reads the Daily text first, then What's New at JW.ORG followed by headlines from the JW.ORG Newsroom and finally the weather.

 

I am not talking about a skill that you have to ask to read the text, and the only skill that appears in the Flash Briefing after adding new content is the one that has still the 2018 texts. All the other skills are separate and yes they will react to the voice command, but it will not say the day and date, plus the references where the article is taken from.

 

What is the name of the skill that you use?

No I didn't like the news flash briefing (it takes to long for my attention span).  I want one item only.  So, I downloaded those skills.  If you do the Examining THe Scriptures 2019 it gives you the date.  If you need any more help, let me know.  I might type it in a confusing way, but I will try my best. 

 

On 1/3/2019 at 11:32 AM, Dove said:

Could you please tell me how you set that up with Alexa? When I ask she only says 'she's not sure about that'. Is this set up from the jw.org site or jwlibrary app?

Go to Amazon.  In the search bar in Amazon type in Alexa Skills.  A new page will pop up.  On that new page, the first box that comes up, it will say   
"Skills add even more capabilities to your Alexa-enabled device".  Click on that box.  A new page will pop up and you will see that next to the search bar it will say Alexa Skills.  In the new search bar type in JW.  You will have a list of skills that will come in handy.    

 

My Mom forgets what to say to activate the right skill, so I got index cards and wrote out the exact phrase she needs to say to get Alexa to activate.  She enjoys Alexa.  

[More4me2do]

28 minutes ago, Jeanie said:

No I didn't like the news flash briefing (it takes to long for my attention span).  I want one item only.  So, I downloaded those skills.  If you do the Examining THe Scriptures 2019 it gives you the date.  If you need any more help, let me know.  I might type it in a confusing way, but I will try my best. 

WOW, I am not so sure if I should touch that attention span admission. For Friday January 4th the daily text timed takes 1minute and 7 seconds, the What's New from JW.ORG plus the JW.ORG Newsroom headlines and the weather takes a total of 32 seconds. If that is too long for your attention span, what do you do if you have a boring speaker? 🤔

Edited January 5, 2019 by More4me2do

[GeordieGirl]

47 minutes ago, Jeanie said:

 

Go to Amazon.  In the search bar in Amazon type in Alexa Skills.  A new page will pop up.  On that new page, the first box that comes up, it will say   
"Skills add even more capabilities to your Alexa-enabled device".  Click on that box.  A new page will pop up and you will see that next to the search bar it will say Alexa Skills.  In the new search bar type in JW.  You will have a list of skills that will come in handy.    

  

I am sorry, I was wondering if you could help me further as I would like to add JW to my flash briefing .. I didn't know this was possible.

 

I have followed your instructions to the letter, but I don't get a new search bar in the new page under Alexa Skills. If I put JW in the search box across the top I just get ' Sorry, Can't find that page'.  There is no box to write JW under Alexa Skills, just a huge rolling box of different skills across the top and then dozens of different skills underneath that you can scroll through and add if you want and a list of different categories on the left hand side. :/ 

Edited January 5, 2019 by GeordieGirl

[Old]

13 minutes ago, More4me2do said:

WOW, I am not so sure if I should touch that attention span admission. For Friday January 4th the daily text timed takes 1minute and 7 seconds, the What's New from JW.ORG plus the JW.ORG Newsroom headlines and the weather takes a total of 32 seconds. If that is too long for your attention span, what do you do if you have a boring speaker? 🤔

? Something I don'tuderstand here, 67 seconds for what?  I use JWLibray on my phone, it opens on the home page with the daily text at  the top, one touch/click away and you have it with comments. I tried to time it, but my stopwatch is slower than the arriving daily text.

[More4me2do]

I do mine from the Alexa app on my smartphone. It easier to do it from the app as I can't get it from the website.

 

In the app you have a menu entry that says Skills & Games. Click on that and you will get a search bar. In that type JW and you get all the JW skills.

 

However for the Flash Briefing in the app you have to click on Settings then Flash Briefing. Click the + sign to add new content. So far the only ones that work in the Flash Briefing are What's New on JW.ORG and the JW.ORG Newsroom. I also use the weather skill from Amazon. Not interested in the News Organizations flash briefings.

 

So far NO Daily Text flash briefing works, just the normal voice command like "Alexa, open Daily Text for today"

 

If this does not work for you invite a tech savvy young brother to your home and ask him to do it 🙂

[More4me2do]

Just now, Old said:

? Something I don'tuderstand here, 67 seconds for what?  I use JWLibray on my phone, it opens on the home page with the daily text at  the top, one touch/click away and you have it with comments. I tried to time it, but my stopwatch is slower than the arriving daily text.

To announce the date, read the text and then the comment plus the references at the bottom. In other words what you have open on your phone, when someone reads all that writing takes 67 seconds.

[Old]

1 minute ago, More4me2do said:

I do mine from the Alexa app on my smartphone. It easier to do it from the app as I can't get it from the website.

 

In the app you have a menu entry that says Skills & Games. Click on that and you will get a search bar. In that type JW and you get all the JW skills.

 

However for the Flash Briefing in the app you have to click on Settings then Flash Briefing. Click the + sign to add new content. So far the only ones that work in the Flash Briefing are What's New on JW.ORG and the JW.ORG Newsroom. I also use the weather skill from Amazon. Not interested in the News Organizations flash briefings.

 

So far NO Daily Text flash briefing works, just the normal voice command like "Alexa, open Daily Text for today"

 

If this does not work for you invite a tech savvy young brother to your home and ask him to do it 🙂

I was refering to how I get the text on my smart phone. What are you using to post here?

[More4me2do]

Sorry didn't get from your comment we are talking about JW library on the smartphone. This thread is for those that have an Amazon Echo and use Alexa. Voice navigation as well as finishing tasks using voice is the future here is what I do.

 

Sitting at the breakfast table, open with prayer then I say "Alexa Flash briefing" and it starts to read to me, while I am eating my breakfast. Multi Tasking. Until December 31st I first listened to the FULL daily text, then What's new on JW.ORG, followed by the JW.ORG Newsroom headline finally ending with the weather report. No device or screen to touch, just talk to the Echo that is hooked up to my amplifier.

[GeordieGirl]

18 minutes ago, More4me2do said:

I do mine from the Alexa app on my smartphone. It easier to do it from the app as I can't get it from the website.

 

In the app you have a menu entry that says Skills & Games. Click on that and you will get a search bar. In that type JW and you get all the JW skills.

 

However for the Flash Briefing in the app you have to click on Settings then Flash Briefing. Click the + sign to add new content. So far the only ones that work in the Flash Briefing are What's New on JW.ORG and the JW.ORG Newsroom. I also use the weather skill from Amazon. Not interested in the News Organizations flash briefings.

 

So far NO Daily Text flash briefing works, just the normal voice command like "Alexa, open Daily Text for today"

 

If this does not work for you invite a tech savvy young brother to your home and ask him to do it 🙂

Thank you for that information. I am actually reasonably tech savvy even though I'm old.  

 

I do have a couple of things in my flash briefing but it was all the JW things that Jeanie mentioned that I wanted .. the JW Trivia sounded interesting as I haven't seen that one in my skills.

However, if the daily text/bible reading doesn't actually work on there I won't continue looking for how to do it. 

 

However, in my JW Skills list I do not have  Whats new on JW.org or JW.org Newsroom.

 

 I do find the 'JW Access' commands a bit long winded which is why it would have been handy to have them in the flash briefing but never mind.  Maybe one day.

 

 

 

Edited January 5, 2019 by GeordieGirl

[More4me2do]

Well let me sum it up for you:

 

You HAVE to go to Settings then click on Flash Briefings. it shows the default flash briefing skills that Amazon has like BBC, CNBC and Reuters. On the top is a PLUS button with the label Add Content. Click on that PLUS button it opens a page listing Flash Briefing skills. On the top is a magnifying glass icon click on that and type into it JW. It will now show all the skills that have something to do with JW. Like JW.ORG What;s New also JW.ORG Newsroom add those to your Flash Briefing and you can then in the Flash Briefing page order which you want to listen to first. I also have the weather announcement in the Flash Briefing.

 

Be mindful NOT all the skills that are appearing when searching for content are Flash Briefing ENABLED.

 

Hope this helps and maybe you can show some of the younger ones what you can do. I also agree with the lengthy commands for the JW Access commands. I just use it when I want to show off my setup and play Original Songs or Children's songs it does have a WOW factor.

[More4me2do]

The mystery is solved as I contacted the creator of the Daily Text flash briefing skill and here is his answer:
 

Quote

 

Thanks for taking the time to write this email.  I was about to push the correction to the code.  

Please check tomorrow morning for the update. But it should be OK.

Once again much appreciated.

 

Just a little while longer and the stuck on 2018 Daily Text will be no more, but the 2019 daily text will be for at least another year.

[GeordieGirl]

50 minutes ago, More4me2do said:

Well let me sum it up for you:

 

You HAVE to go to Settings then click on Flash Briefings. it shows the default flash briefing skills that Amazon has like BBC, CNBC and Reuters. On the top is a PLUS button with the label Add Content. Click on that PLUS button it opens a page listing Flash Briefing skills. On the top is a magnifying glass icon click on that and type into it JW. It will now show all the skills that have something to do with JW. Like JW.ORG What;s New also JW.ORG Newsroom add those to your Flash Briefing and you can then in the Flash Briefing page order which you want to listen to first. I also have the weather announcement in the Flash Briefing.

 

.

 

 

Yes, thank you for that. I do know how to do it. However, this is what I get when I follow your instructions to the letter, although, before you kindly wrote it all out for me I had already done it at least 4 times with the same result everytime. 

 

When I click on the link that says: or search in all categories, it takes me back to the results of JW which doesn't include anything from JW.org.

Edited January 5, 2019 by GeordieGirl

[Jeanie]

2 hours ago, More4me2do said:

WOW, I am not so sure if I should touch that attention span admission. For Friday January 4th the daily text timed takes 1minute and 7 seconds, the What's New from JW.ORG plus the JW.ORG Newsroom headlines and the weather takes a total of 32 seconds. If that is too long for your attention span, what do you do if you have a boring speaker? 🤔

James did I miss something in the conversation?  I was trying to help.  I even made a point to come back on here this afternoon to respond to you like I said I would.  Is there a reason you decided to focus on my comment about attention span instead of a thank you?   Now, to answer your question  my news flashing also tells me other things like news topics, what the calendar is (such as National Donut Day) and goes into that.  Anyway, it takes several minutes to get through it.  Now, if I wanted to hear all that info, that's great.  However, I just want the Examining The Scriptures, so it is easier for me to just activate that skill and bypass all the senseless info that I don't want to hear on the News Flash and I can focus my attention on the details and things that are important.     

 

I think we all have strategies to focus our attention if we were to hear a talk with a speaker not as skilled as others.  I am sorry I couldn't help you answer your question, but I really did try to help. No hard feelings, we all have to learn to get along.  I just wanted to express to you why I don't use the News Flash on Alexa.

[More4me2do]

Sorry about the misunderstanding, didn't know you had all the different default Flash Briefing skills still active. You can edit the order and number of flash briefing entries that you have in your queue from the Settings menu then by selecting flash briefing and disable the ones you don't want. I disabled all the default entries and just have 4 in there, Daily Text, What's New on JW.ORG, JW.ORG Newsroom and the weather. After that the program exits the Flash briefing, that takes less then 2 minutes depending on the entries in What's New and the Newsroom of JW.ORG. I don't want to listen to BBC, CNBC, Reuters or the WSJ don't have time for that.

 

If you though want to keep all your entries for future use, then edit the order and move the ones you want to listen to the top. When you are happy with what you have listened to, then just say "Alexa Stop" and it exits. I know that Amazon wants us to listen to the junk that the vendors paid them to put in as a default in the Flash Briefing, but you can customize that to your liking.

 

I really don't have a problem with using the Alexa Skills it was the daily text flash briefing that had a code problem. I made my living in the IT world and am the tech support in my family, but this Flash Briefing Skill did no longer work after 12/31/2018 and I wanted to alert others. As you can see from my other posts after I contacted the creator of the daily text Flash Briefing he will push out a corrected version sometime over the weekend.

 

All the best.

[More4me2do]

2 hours ago, GeordieGirl said:

Yes, thank you for that. I do know how to do it. However, this is what I get when I follow your instructions to the letter, although, before you kindly wrote it all out for me I had already done it at least 4 times with the same result everytime. 

 

When I click on the link that says: or search in all categories, it takes me back to the results of JW which doesn't include anything from JW.org.

From your picture it looks like you are not in the Alexa App but rather just on the Amazon site. If you use the Amazon site you have to use the Alexa Skill category. Where did you set your Echo up from, Smartphone, Tablet or PC?

 

If you used the Amazon Website then try this link in the Internet Explorer browser or your default browser. As you can see it shows as category Alexa Skills and there you get returns for searching for JW.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01FB6A31I/ref=pe_1098610_137717230_cm_rv_rej_eml_dphttps://www.jw.org/en/

[GeordieGirl]

4 hours ago, More4me2do said:

From your picture it looks like you are not in the Alexa App but rather just on the Amazon site. If you use the Amazon site you have to use the Alexa Skill category. Where did you set your Echo up from, Smartphone, Tablet or PC?

 

If you used the Amazon Website then try this link in the Internet Explorer browser or your default browser. As you can see it shows as category Alexa Skills and there you get returns for searching for JW.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01FB6A31I/ref=pe_1098610_137717230_cm_rv_rej_eml_dphttps://www.jw.org/en/

That was the Alexa App on my phone .. where both my echo and my dot were set up from.  I already have the Daily text on my phone but it doesn't come up in flash briefing. Hence the above pic.

 

 

 

Edited January 5, 2019 by GeordieGirl

[More4me2do]

Your screen shot looks totally different then mine from my Android phone, what shows when you click on the link that I posted?

 

Also you HAVE to use the Daily Text skill that has Flash Briefing enabled. There are two skills that give you the daily text one with 118 reviews that does NOT do Flash Briefing and one that has 15 reviews that DOES do flash briefing.

 

When you search try also jw.org in the search field OR set it up from the link that I posted.