How to Set up Your Own Alexa Flash Briefing

Flash briefing is an Alexa skill that comes built-in to Amazon smart speakers. You can customize your Alexa flash briefing to get personalized news stories, weather reports, and updates from your favorite websites.

What Is a Personalized Alexa Flash Briefing?

When you set up your Amazon Echo device, Alexa uses the information you provide to tailor her responses to your location. When you say “Alexa, play my flash briefing,” Amazon's virtual assistant will provide a detailed local weather report for the day before playing the default news feed for your region. For example, the default in the U.S. is NPR, while the default in the U.K. is BBC.

You can extend your flash briefing by adding more feeds. Most major and local news outlets have their own Alexa flash briefing feeds, as do websites like EPSN.com. There are thousands of flash briefing feeds, and not all of them are news and weather-related. You'll find feeds that provide daily fashion advice, vocabulary words, and guided meditations.

In addition to audio feeds, there are also text feeds that Alexa can read to you and video feeds for Alexa devices with a screen. During your briefing, you can say “Alexa, next” and “Alexa, go back” to skip ahead or replay the previous feed.

How to Customize Alexa Flash Briefings

You can edit your flash briefing and add more feeds using the Alexa app for Android, iOS, and Fire OS devices:

1. Open the Alexa app and tap More > Settings.

   

2. Scroll down to Alexa Preferences and select News, and then tap Flash Briefing.

   

3. Tap Add Content. Scroll through the options, tap a feed you want to add, and then tap Enable to Use.

   

   You can also search for feeds and sort by relevance, customer rating, or date added.

4. Tap Settings. Customize the feed's settings to your liking, then tap Manage Flash Briefings to return to the Alexa app settings.

   

5. Your feeds will play in the order listed. Tap the toggle switch next to each feed to enable or disable it. To change the order of your feeds, tap Edit in the top-right corner.

   

How to Add Alexa News Flash Briefings

If you're only interested in news, you can add flash briefings from the Alexa skills menu:

1. Open the Alexa app and tap More > Skills & Games.

   

2. Tap the Categories tab, and then select News.

   

3. You'll see a list of the top trending news skills. Tap See More to view all of the available options. Tap the news flash briefing you want to enable, and then tap Enable to Use.

   

How to Change Your Weather Flash Briefing

Alexa's weather reports are based on the address associated with your Echo device. To change your weather location settings:

1. Open the Alexa app and tap Devices, then select Echo & Alexa.

   

2. Choose your Echo device.

   

3. Tap Device Location to set the location for your smart speaker.

   

   If you just want a quick weather report without playing your entire flash briefing, say “Alexa, what's the weather like?”