Using the New Alexa Skill

After you have enabled the new Alexa Skill you can say “Alexa, open Talking Newspapers’ and you will get an opening message which will guide you to the publication you want.

The easiest way of getting to Sheffield Talking News is when Alexa asks you for a city or a newspaper, you respond by saying “Sheffield”. Alexa will then give you a list of options and asks which one you want to listen to. The options in order are:

You then choose the edition you want to listen to by saying it. For instance, if you want to hear the latest edition of the news you simply say, “Sheffield Talking Newspaper”. If you want to hear the previous edition of the magazine you say, “Sheffield Talk About magazine previous edition”. Alexa checks that it has heard you correctly, and if it has you confirm by saying “Yes” – then you sit back while Alexa plays your choice.

Once you’re used to getting into Sheffield Talking News that way, a slightly slicker way of getting where you want is to say to Alexa, “Alexa, ask Talking Newspapers for Sheffield Talking Newspaper”; or “Alexa, ask Talking Newspapers for Sheffield Talk About magazine”, and so on.

Once Alexa gets used to you using ‘Talking Newspapers’ the response you get may adapt to offering straight away what you usually ask for. If you return within twenty four hours it will ask if you want to continue where you left off.

Navigating within ‘Talking Newspapers’

Once you are into an edition of the news, the magazine or ‘Out and About’, you can skip from one track to the next by saying, “Alexa next track”. Alternatively you can skip back a track by saying, “Alexa, previous track.” If you say, “Alexa, start over”, Alexa takes you back to the start of the item.

“Alexa, pause” will pause an item and “Alexa, play” will start it playing again.

Saying “Alexa, cancel” will take you back to the start of the current track.

The skill will be developed and improved over time and we will endeavour to keep you updated when changes occur. This guide is correct in March 2022.