Starting In Your Pocket for the first time

To get started using In Your Pocket you will need an activation code, you will have received this code via email upon subscribing to the service.

Once you have your activation code ready to use, you can go to your Alexa speaker and say Alexa, m4_speaker_start_phrase. If your Alexa hears you correctly, Pocket should give you a brief welcome message, and proceed to ask you for your activation code.

Your activation code will have been sent to you in phonetic alphabet form. You can now spell or read out your activation code to your Alexa, if it is having trouble recognising what you are saying, you can spell out the code using words starting with the same letters. For example, if your code was A B C D E you could say alpha, bravo, charlie, delta, echo or any other words beginning with the corresponding letters.

Once you have successfuly entered your activation code your speaker should tell you that you can now interact with Real Sam, from here you can ask to listen to the user guide, or you could say read me a book among other things.

After you have succesfully connected to Real Sam for the first time on a speaker, there will be no need to provide an activation code upon subsequent use. You can simply say Alexa, m4_speaker_start_phrase and get started using Pocket.

Quick start

To get started talking to In Your Pocket, go to your Alexa speaker and say Alexa, m4_speaker_start_phrase.

Whenever you address your speaker without it directly prompting you, you must preface what you say by saying Alexa or m4_speaker_trigger_alt. To avoid repetitiveness in this user guide these phrases may not be mentioned in examples.

In Your Pocket has a variety of interesting features available to you, here is a quick list of things you can try to get started:

To listen to a book you can say read me a book, from here you will be given a list of book sources to choose from, and then a list of available books for you to browse. Once you have selected a book source, you can search for books from this source by saying something like Find books by Louisa May Alcott or Find books with title Little Women. In Your Pocket will then provide you a list of books matching your search from your selected book source.

Similarly you could say List podcasts to browse through all the podcasts available to you.

These are only a few of the many features available to you when using In Your Pocket, you can learn more about the other features by listening to the different sections of the user guide.

It is important to note that In Your Pocket is a feature added to your speaker, which handles other commands as well, therefore your speaker can occasionally become confused and not understand that you want to interact with Pocket. To avoid this confusion and to get the best experience using In Your Pocket please listen to the tips and tricks section of the user guide.

Tips and tricks

In Your Pocket runs as an added feature on your speaker, this can sometimes lead to confusion between the host speaker and In Your Pocket. To avoid this confusion we suggest keeping the following in mind:

• After In Your Pocket stops talking it will usually ask you a question, or start listening for a response from you. In Your Pocket will prompt and listen for a response three times, if no response is given within this time In Your Pocket will shut off. To avoid this we highly recommend turning on sounds and notifications at the start and end of requests via your Alexa app so you can hear when your speaker is listening for a response.
• Saying cancel or stop when you are not currently listening to a book or podcast will cause In Your Pocket to shut off. You will know that In Your Pocket has shut off when it says Talk with you later. If this happens you can restart In Your Pocket by saying Alexa, m4_speaker_start_phrase.
• Occasionally your speaker will become confused and say Real Sam is not responding right now, if this happens you can restart the conversation by saying Alexa, m4_speaker_start_phrase, and once Pocket has finished talking say Repeat.
• Interrupting In Your Pocket while it is speaking can occasionally cause your speaker device to become confused, to avoid this it is advisable to wait until In Your Pocket has finished speaking and prompts you for a response.
• If In Your Pocket ever gets into a state you do not know how to deal with you can always say Alexa, cancel twice to shut off In Your Pocket, and then restart it by saying Alexa, m4_speaker_start_phrase.
• There are many ways you can speak to and interact with Pocket, however to avoid situations where In Your Pocket cannot understand what you are requesting, we suggest using the example dialogue outlined in this user guide as much as possible.