Home > Solutions > Smart Home, AI, Robots, Internet of Things > My Calls: an Alexa Skill for Coordinating Calls

My Calls: an Alexa Skill for Coordinating Calls

By:  Frank Engelman   |  Posted: October 14, 2022   |  Updated: April 18, 2023

When you buy something we recommend, we may get an affiliate commission — but it never affects your price or what we pick. Learn more

The Problem to be Solved

My Dad Keeps Calling Me at a Bad Time

My Dad Keeps Calling Me at a Bad Time

My dad lives in a different time zone and never seems to remember my work schedule. He is trying to call me for just a chat, but really gets confused about me being three hours later.

View the problem

Solution Details

 

This Alexa skill helps your family members plan their calls so they reach you at times that are convenient for you.

 

See this solution in action in this video

 

About this Alexa Skill

The My Calls Alexa Skill can be programmed with your US time zone and available hours for calling. Once that is set up, your dad can ask his Amazon Echo device using the My Calls Skill if it’s a good time to call you.

  • If it’s not a good time, the Skill can put a reminder on your dad’s Echo devices. This will be adjusted for your dad’s time zone and alert him when it’s a good time to call you
  • If it is a good time, the Skill will tell him to say “Alexa, call ABC” where “ABC” is your Alexa Contact name

 

There are two ways for your dad to invoke the My Calls Skill:

  1. “Alexa, open My Calls”
  2. “Alexa, is this a good time to call ABC?” where “ABC” is your Alexa Contact name

Solution 2 requires the creation of an Alexa Routine as shown below and may be much easier for your dad.

Caption- My Calls Alexa Routine

 

If you are not familiar with creating Alexa Routines, please see this article “Solution: Make Alexa Proactive: Create Routines”

 

Please note that in adding your US time zone and available hours, you will need to be using your dad’s Alexa account, as that is where the Skill will be running.

To configure your My Calls US time zone and available time settings, just follow the on-screen instructions

Please note, that you will need to have your Alexa Contact name be the same as the “name” you enter in the My Calls configuration

If you don’t have access to your dad’s Alexa account, you could remotely guide him through the configuration procedure as it’s all done by voice.

Or you could log out of your Alexa account, log in as “dad” to configure the My Calls Skill, and then log out of dad’s account.

To log out of your Alexa account, on your mobile device in the Alexa app

  1. Tap “more”
  2. Tap “Settings”
  3. Tap “Sign out”

 

 

KitList

View this skill on Amazon:

 

 

*Disclosure: The research and opinions in this article are those of the author, and may or may not reflect the official views of Tech-enhanced Life.

If you use the links on this website when you buy products we write about, we may earn commissions from qualifying purchases as an Amazon Associate or other affiliate program participant. This does not affect the price you pay. We use the (modest) income to help fund our research.

In some cases, when we evaluate products and services, we ask the vendor to loan us the products we review (so we don’t need to buy them). Beyond the above, Tech-enhanced Life has no financial interest in any products or services discussed here, and this article is not sponsored by the vendor or any third party. See How we Fund our Work.

Author

franke_headshot.png

Frank Engelman

Retired Intel Engineer wanting to share DIY technology tips for the children of parents wanting to remain living independently. I like posting ideas and answering technical questions. If a product or software has an issue making it hard for seniors to use, I try to offer workarounds and also try to contact the manufacturer for solutions. I write a column for this website in the Innovation- Homebrew Solutions & Ideas section

Related Topic Hubs