Hi all,
I have a ST hub and an Echo. I have done the integration and everyhing work as it should. I can control my ST devices using voice commands.
But, my question is; can I have ST control the Echo?
Specifically, I have a ST outlet that I’ve plugged an old analog dial radio into and when I am away I have a routine that runs each day to turn the radio on and off to make it seem more like someone is home. What I WANT TO DO is to replace the radio with my echo, and simply have ST direct it to “play” a radio station, or some Amazon prime music.
Thoughts on that???
Good question, and much discussed in the forums. Just search the forums for echo and you’ll find many threads about it.
The short answer is that Amazon does not yet provide a way to easily control what echo does. That’s a change that Amazon would have to make before SmartThings could take advantage of it.
The longer answer is that if you are a programmer you can create a “skill” that can then cause echo to do some things, but you will need an Amazon developers account and to host some additional code. It’s not impossible, but it’s not like just installing an app. And it would have to be done separately for each individual thing that you want to have happen, that is, selecting from Pandora would be different than selecting from Spotify and both would be different than just having echo give a voice announcement that the laundry was done.
There’s also a goofy way that works for some use cases: you just set up another device near the echo that has the ability to play either a pre-recorded MP3 or has an intercom type feature and then you have that device play its voice file which Echo then responds to just like a person in the room saying the same thing.
Quite a few people do this with nestcam just because it has a good audio intercom (but not good ST integration). If you’re looking specifically for integration with smart things, you can do it with an android device and the smart app called LANnouncer.
So while it’s hokey, it works for a lot of situations.