Talk to your Alexa or Mobile device and listen to Sankalpam and Daily Calendar hands-free!Now available in USA, India, UK, Australia and Canada
Have an Alexa device or just an Amazon account and a smartphone? If so, here are easy steps to onboard:
Please feel free to contact us for help enabling/using this feature.
- Install the Alexa Mobile App appropriate for your phone platform:
Alexa Mobile App for Android OR
Alexa Mobile App for IOS
- Next install the SAM Calendar Alexa Skill using one of the below links appropriate to your location and locale:
- USA
- India
- UK
- Canada
- Australia
- Click on Sign In button under Get Skill
- Sign in to your Amazon account using the email associated with Amazon.
- You will see the SAM Calendar skill. Click on the button to Enable Skill
- By enabling, this skill can be accessed on all your available Alexa devices.
That's it! Now you are ready to start using the skill! Set your location coordinates...
Simply talk to your Alexa device to start using the skill.
To use Alexa on your phone, start the Alexa Mobile App. Click on the bright Alexa Talk symbol located centrally at the bottom of your screen and start talking.
Start the SAM Calendar skill session, by saying, "Alexa, Open Sam Calendar"
- You should hear a welcome prompt advising you to set your coordinates ie. city that you are located at
- When opening the skill on subsequent times, you will hear the location you have set previously.
- Note: You will need to say, "Alexa, Open Sam Calendar" once at the begining of each session.
Set your device coordinates for first time, by saying, for example, "Set coordinates to Chennai"
- Say, "Set coordinates to Atlanta", or whatever the city of your location
- You should hear a confirmation with latitude, longitude and timezone. Make sure it's set correctly, else, please repeat the step to ensure your location is correctly set
- Once you have set the location, your welcome prompt will remind you of the location at the start of each session.
- You don't need to set coordinates each time you use the skill.
- Should you need to set to a different location simply repeat the step as described above.
- Note: You will be able to get Sankalpam and Daily Calendar only after the location has been set.
Sankalpam...
Getting sankalpam with the skill, once you have set coordinates, and started a session:
- Note: You will be able to get Sankalpam and Daily Calendar only after the location has been set.
- To start a new session if not already started say, "Alexa, open sam calendar"
- Say, "Tell me the sankalpam now", or "What is the sankalpam now"
- You should have the sankalpam for the moment, appropriate for your location read out to you.
- Note: You can only get the sankalpam for the current time.
Calendar...
Getting Daily Calendar with the skill, once you have set coordinates, and started a session:
- Note: You will be able to get Sankalpam and Daily Calendar only after the location has been set.
- To start a new session if not already started say, "Alexa, open sam calendar"
- Say, "Tell me the daily calendar for today" to get the daily calendar for your location
- You should have the observations read out to you
- You can get the calendar for today or a future date, by saying "Tell me the daily calendar for tomorrow", or a specific date eg, "Tell me the daily calendar for December 10th"
Finding upcoming observations and custom events...
Getting next Ekadasi, Amavasya tarpanam or next custom event or next birthday, once you have set coordinates, and started a session:
- Note: You will be able to get any Calendar details only after the location has been set.
- Say, "When is the next Ekadasi?", or "When is the next Ammavasai Tarpanam?" to get the next Ekadasi vratam or tarpanam date.
- Say, "When is the next custom event?", or "When is the next birthday?" or "When is the next sraaddham" to get the next custom event like tamizh birthday.
- Note: tamil birthdays and other custom events require importing them to Alexa first.
- Please see section below, Importing Custom Events to your Alexa to get upcoming personal events/birthdays
Other useful tips, once you have set coordinates, and started a session:
- Say, "Tell me the rahu kalam times for today", or "Tell me the yama gandam time", or "When is the sunrise?" or "When is the sunset?" to get appropriate details.
- Tip on daily/repeated use: You can open the skill and get specific information, all in one shot, by saying, "Alexa, open sam calendar and tell me the sankalpam now" or "Alexa, open sam calendar and tell me the daily calendar for today"
- Once a session is open, you can continue asking more questions, without "Alexa, Open SAM Calendar".
- In the mobile app, simply pressing the bright Alexa button is sufficient to open the skill and there is no need to say, "Alexa" before a command.
- To close a session, say, "Alexa, stop"
Importing your custom events to Alexa...
You can get custom events like nakshatram based birthday, wedding anniversary, sraddham into Alexa. You do this by simply linking your custom SAM Calendar on our website and the Alexa skill:
Linking your SAM Calendar and Alexa: Phase 1
- First, go to Alexa, and say, "Tell me my user ID".
- Alexa will recite an eight digit code. Please note down the eight digit code.
- Next, visit the SAM Online Calendar page
- Click on Add Personalized events to this calendar
- If you see all your events already, simply skip to step h
- If you have added custom events to a previous calendar order, you can retrieve them with you old Order ID and email address.
- Otherwie, Add your events, one at a time, clicking on Add Event to my Daily Calendar each time
- The observation date for this event should fill in as soon as you add the event
- When done adding all events, click on Save All Events for import from Alexa
- You will be taken to Link to Alexa page.
- Here you will need to enter your SAM Calendar order ID, example 2018xxx (requires purchased calendar order number for US residents only) and the eight digit user ID code you got from Alexa in step b above
- If you are outside the USA, the calendar is free. The order number willl be auto-generated for you by the web site.
After you link your SAM Calendar with Alexa, now go back to Alexa: Phase 2
- Say, "Import my custom events"
- Alexa will confirm importing your events by saying how many events were imported.
- To verify the import was succesful you may ask, "What is my next custom event?"
- You don't need to import custom events each year. Only when they have changed or new ones have been added since.
This is an experimental feature, so please let us know about your experience and any errors. All feedback is valuable, be it accuracy, ease of use, ability to convey your intent easily, ability to understand the read outs, suggestions for improvement etc.
Thx much
Sri Ahobila Muth Team