Alexa Trigger Phrase and Alexa Routines (new Alexa feature)

[JDRoberts]

Alexa triggers has been discussed in the Alexa FAQ:

FAQ: Amazon Echo: The Official SmartThings Integration is here! (Initial SetUp FAQ)

NEW: Alexa IFTTT Triggers As of November 12, 2015, there are now two official ways to integrate Alexa and SmartThings. The first way is fast and simple, and can do any one thing that you can do in the official SmartThings IFTTT channel. You pick any phrase you want to use, and use that as the “if” in the Alexa channel at IFTTT for a new recipe. Then you just pick from the dropdown options in the SmartThings IFTTT channel as the “that.” To use a recipe, you say “Alexa, trigger {my phrase}.” So you could say “Alexa, trigger open the pod bay doors” to open your garage door, “Alexa, trigger autodestruct” to turn on your siren, “Alexa, trigger kitchen lights” to turn on your kitchen light. Whatever you want. This is the power of IFTTT, and why SmartThings having a channel there is so u…

And here’s how to use Echo to run a SmartThings routine, whether you’re using the trigger method or the connected home method:

[DEPRECATED] 2015 Voice Assistant Run Routine FAQ--see 2017 FAQ instead

On October 1, 2016, Amazon added the ability to turn on a " routine" from Alexa. If you want to use that method, see the official support article. https://support.smartthings.com/hc/en-us/articles/210204906-Amazon-Alexa-SmartThings-Routines Note that the official method will not allow you to use echo to run any routine that includes a lock or a Smart Home Monitor armed state change or another device class that Alexa does not know. The method described below in this FAQ will, but it does require that you create a virtual switch. Although at present echo can only request that smartthings turn devices on, off or dim, by using a virtual switch, you can tell echo to turn that switch on or off, and then have all kinds of things happen in smartthings. For example, if you want to have echo tu…

And triggers have also been discussed at length in my Ifttt project topic:

Alexa + SmartThings + IFTTT + Harmony to turn TV on and off by voice (2015 version)

Updated 12 November 2015 after Amazon added “Triggers” to their IFTTT Channel for Alexa As valuable as I personally found this project, and as much as I learned in doing it, as of 12 November 2015 it’s now no longer necessary. Amazon has added verbal triggers to their IFTTT channel. So you can say anything you want to as a trigger to Alexa and use that as the “if” for an IFTTT recipe, and have that trigger anything that has an IFTTT “that” channel. So SmartThings, Philips Hue, Harmony activities, etc. No virtual switches needed, no synch issues. It really is that easy. If you’re new to IFTTT, here’s a good overview: You may still want to use the direct Harmony/SmartThings integration to control certain aspects of TV watching, like limiting your kids to 30 minutes of Net…

Quite a few community members have been using them since they were introduced last month.