Alexa announcement at a specif time when a condition is met?

SmartApps & Automations Automation Ideas
1

I have a garage door sensor connected to my ST Hub. I would like to get an announcement from Alexa at 8pm if the door is still open. I have conquered the door open/door closed routine but do not know how to get to this new goal.

Thanks in advance for your help.

2

I used a custom rule in the SHM (Classic App only) that sends an audio notification (which goes out via Echo Speaks) when my doors are still open at 9PM. Setting up Echo Speaks is key.

3

Just a side note: the Classic SmartThings app is being phased out by the end of this year

1 Like
4

Yes, they say that. But, you can still do many things (faster, easier, more reliably, only) in the Classic App. They should work harder on fixing that before they “phase it out”.

I suspect you can do the same in STHM in the new app (*).

The key thing to getting Alexa to announce is to use Echo Speaks (**), and if you can hook up an announcement in STHM as trivially as it is in SHM, then it should be easy to accomplish this in the new app.

(*) I can’t test that because you apparently can’t use SHM and STHM at the same time, and I’m not going to discard all the working alerts in the SHM on a hope and prayer that they’ll eventually work the same in the new app.

(**) Echo Speaks is a Groovy SmartApp, and Groovy support is also going to be phased out. Hopefully, SmartThings doesn’t discard their massive competitive advantage in their existing rich existing ecosystem.

5

You can use both at the same time. The only reason I recommend to users to avoid it, is if they set off the alarm state then it needs to be cleared in both apps as they are completely separate. Most people forget and then wonder why they clear the alert that they continue getting alerts.

But to answer your question, there are no rules in STHM like there are in SHM in the classic. You need to use Automations outside of STHM. So go ahead and use both SHM and STHM and at least try. Don’t wait until the end and become more frustrated.

And please. Probably not a good idea to mention that users think about the classic app when they will simply need to change within months. That will lead to them becoming frustrated. Just saying :wink: