Voice Assistants

Getting started with Argyll and Bute Council’s Smartspeaker Assistant on Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant

In 2020 Argyll and Bute Council introduced its Alexa Smartspeaker Assistant for checking what day to put your bins out and over 1400 customers have activated it on their devices. As part of our ongoing development of easy to use digital services, we have now added the service to Google Assistant; which is the second most popular smartspeaker device and app in the UK after Alexa. Google assistant is availiable on a range of devices including, Android and Apple phones, Tablets, Smart speakers and  Smart TVs.

We have also updated the council’s smart assistant ‘skill’ on Amazon’s Alexa platform and so it is now able to remind you when it is your bin day, without you having to ask.  We will be adding other council related information and features to the service over the next year. The information below tells you how to access these services.

These new features are in addition to the bin lookup service we areleady provide.  We hope you will find them useful and you can continue to look up your bin collection day through this website.

Amazon Alexa

What You Need to Access this Service

You will need:

  • An Amazon account
  • A smartphone/tablet that can run the Alexa App or an Amazon Alexa smart speaker device (see range on Amazon.com)

How to Set Up Alexa on Your phone or tablet (if you do not already have an Alexa device)

  1. Go to the Apple app store or Google Play Store on your device.
  2. Search for the Amazon Alexa app.
  3. Tap install. Wait for the app to download and install.
  4. Open the Alexa app and follow the onscreen instructions.
  5. Log in using the username and password for your Amazon account.

Add the Argyll and Bute council ‘skill’ to your Alexa Device

You can add the skill through the Amazon website, or in the Alexa App

In the Alexa App

Click on the ‘browse skills’ button.

Search for ‘Argyll and Bute Council’, the skill should be the first result.

Click enable and follow any on screen instructions

On the Amazon website

Visit the Amazon website and sign in with your Amazon Account.

Finding our Alexa skill

And Search for ‘Argyll and Bute Council’

Click on the ‘enable’ button.  This will add the skill to all your amazon devices that are associated with your amazon account.

Start the skill

  1. Say to your Alexa device:  “Alexa, Ask Argyll and Bute Council”.  This will start the Argyll and Bute Council Skill.
  2. Once the skill starts up, you can say “when is my next bin collection?” and Alexa will tell you when you next need to have your bins out!
  3. *NEW*  you will then be asked if you want to set up a reminder,  just say ‘yes’ or ‘no’!

GOOGLE ASSISTANT

What You Need to Access this Service

You will need:

  • A Google account
  • A smartphone/tablet that can run the Google assistant App or a suitable Google Nest device (see range on Google.com)
  • Another device that has Google Assistant built in (for example, some TVs now come with Google Assistant support)

How to Set Up Google Assistant on Your phone or tablet (if you do not already have an Android Phone or Google Nest device)

  1. Go to the Apple app store or Google Play Store on your device.
  2. Search for the Google Assistant app.
  3. Tap install. Wait for the app to download and install.
  4. Open the Google Assistant app and follow the onscreen instructions.

Start the Assistant on Android phones and devices

On phones hold down the ‘home’ button and Assistant will start.

Start the Assistant on other phones and devices

  1. Say to your Google Assistant device:  “Hey Google, Ask Argyll and Bute Council”. 
  2. Once the skill starts up, you can say “when is my next bin collection?” and your google skill will tell you when you next need to have your bins out!
  3. *NEW*  you will then be asked if you want to set up a reminder,  just say ‘yes’ or ‘no’!

Our Voice Assistant Skills and bin lookup service is part of our ongoing project to allow access to council related information on a variety of different digital devices and we want to build on these skills and make them as useful as possible.

We want to add useful resources and we would love to hear your ideas for services we could add to the Argyll and Bute Council skills.  What council services would you like to be able to ask your voice assistants about next?

Please let us know your ideas and comments in our short survey.