Alexa and "TV"

[JDRoberts]

See the echo naming quirks thread. It seems pretty clear that some words are reserved for echo’s own use, perhaps for future functionality. TV does seem to be one of these, as is ESPN.

If you use the IFT TT channel method so that you were saying “Alexa, trigger TV,” it will work. Once you put the “trigger” in there it will pretty much let you use anything.

But if you’re using any of the other methods where echo has to parse what you’re saying to figure it out, you just have to work around these quirks and choose a different word.

At our house we ended up using “local” And “cable” depending on exactly what device we wanted.

Echo Naming Quirks

Please add more as you find them. echo does not do well with device names that include numbers, like "kitchen 1." If you have a device with a name like this, and you don’t want to change it because you like having that name for your smartthings dashboard, then just put the device into an echo group of one and give it a group name that echo does like. Echo does not like the group name “everything.” Some possible alternatives include “house” or “all devices” Echo will always accept “turn on” or “switch on.” Iris has a list of 20 “basic” command formats for switches and thermostats that echo should always accept (although using a rigid command format sort of defeats the purpose of having echo’s natural language skills). But at least you could use these to test a particular prob…