Amazon Alexa and Yardian

The Yardian Skill for Amazon Alexa allows you to use your voice to control your Yardian smart sprinkler controller.

What’s New!

With our latest update, active Yardian zones now automatically appear as smart devices in your Alexa App. This means you can control individual zones directly from the Alexa app interface, add your sprinklers to custom Alexa Routines, and use simple, direct voice commands alongside our traditional “Ask Yardian” features.

Getting Started

To get started, you need a Yardian account. You can create your account through the Yardian mobile app or the Yardian web app.

Create your account and log in to the Yardian app.
Add your Yardian device and enable the zones connected to your sprinkler valves.
Open the Amazon Alexa app, search for the Yardian skill, and follow the instructions to link your account.

Once connected, there are two ways to control your Yardian system:

1. Smart Home Voice Control (Direct Device Control)

Best for: Quick toggles, using exact zone names, and Alexa Routines.

Because each active Yardian zone now acts as a Smart Home switch, you can turn zones on or off at any time using the custom zone names you created in the Yardian App. By default, turning a zone on via a Smart Home command will water for 10 minutes unless you explicitly turn it off earlier.

Smart Home Voice Commands:

“Alexa, turn on Front Garden.”
“Alexa, turn off Zone 2.”
“Alexa, turn on My Zone 6.”

(Note: Smart Home commands require you to use the exact zone names defined in your Yardian App).

2. Custom Skill Control (Specific Timers & Advanced Features)

Best for: Custom watering durations, running multiple zones in sequence, and checking schedules.

For quick watering sessions with custom durations, or to ask about your watering schedule, you can talk to Yardian directly using zone numbers.

Custom Skill Voice Commands:

Run a specific zone for a set time: “Alexa, ask Yardian to water Zone 1 for ten minutes.”
Run your multi-zone Quick Program: “Alexa, ask Yardian to start watering.”
Stop a current watering task: “Alexa, ask Yardian to stop watering.”
Check your schedule: “Alexa, ask Yardian about the next watering task.”
Identify a zone: “Alexa, ask Yardian about the zone name.”

(Note: Custom skill commands accept zone numbers, e.g., Zone 1 through Zone 12, along with a specific watering duration).

Please follow the instructions to learn how to link the Yardian Skill and set up the Amazon Echo smart speaker in the Alexa app.

Try it for yourself now, and integrate your irrigation system directly into your Alexa Smart Home ecosystem!

Having Trouble with Alexa Mishearing "Yardian"? Use Alexa Routines

Because “Yardian” is a unique brand name, voice assistants can sometimes mishear it as “Guardian” or “Yarding.” If you prefer using Custom Skill commands with a watering duration but want to avoid pronunciation issues, you can create a custom Alexa Routine.

Alexa Routines allow you to invent your own simple trigger phrases, like “Alexa, water the lawn” or “Alexa, start the sprinklers”, to automatically run your favorite Yardian Custom Skill commands in the background. You get the exact watering duration you want without ever saying the word “Yardian.”

Read our step-by-step guide on how to set up Custom Alexa Routines

Try it for yourself now, and integrate your irrigation system directly into your Alexa Smart Home ecosystem!

Yardian Custom Skill Voice Commands

Invocation

Alexa, ask Yardian
Alexa, launch Yardian

You will hear “Welcome to Yardian,” then you can use Yardian voice commands like “start zone one for 10 minutes.” You can also say a whole sentence, like “Alexa, ask Yardian to do run zone one for 10 minutes.” Alexa might have problems recognizing keywords like Yardian in a whole sentence. If this happens, please say “Alexa, ask Yardian“ or “launch Yardian” first, then say the other commands.

Run a zone

Start watering

You can simply say “start watering” to activate multiple zones one by one. Yardian is the only controller in the market that can run all your zones with one simple command. Please make sure you have set up the “watering tasks” – zone and duration pair(s) – in your Yardian app “Control” page before using this command.

Start zone two for 1 hour
Run zone three for half an hour
Turn on zone five for 15 minutes
Water zone one for 10 minutes
Begin watering in zone four for 15 minutes

Stop a zone

Turn off
Turn it off
Stop current watering task
Stop watering
Stop current watering
Turn off watering

The current watering task will be skipped, and the next task will continue.

Ask about the next watering task

Next watering task
Next watering time
What is the next watering task
When will be the next run
When is the next run
When is the next time for watering
Next watering task in Yardian

Ask about the zone name

Tell me the name of zone two
Zone name of zone three
What is the name of zone one
What is zone two
Name of zone five
What is zone three called
What do I call zone two