Amazon Echo - Current summary of what/how it integrates with ST? (May 2016)

[N8XD (I got a hair cut from Alexa)]

[NO LONGER SUPPORTED] Ask Alexa

All, this is a new thread from my conversation in the Alexa Helper area ([RELEASE] Alexa Helper) I am officially announcing my new Ask Alexa Smart App. This is what a lot of us have been looking for when it was announced that SmartThings would work with the Amazon Echo (‘Alexa’). Unfortunately, the integration was one-way and limited. You could not query your devices to find out their status, and you had NO access to modes, SHM or routines. I attempted to fill the gap with Alexa Helper, and it did a great job at giving you additional control over items using simple on/off commands. I even got into the ‘feedback’ piece by sending a voice output to a Sonos speaker. But, I always felt this was a ‘hack’…why ask a speaker (Alexa) to report out on another speaker. Well, with the guidance of @N…

AskHome - Alexa/SmartThings programmers kit. Alexa can do anything

Hi Guys, In real life you view your home as a structure filled with rooms, people, and objects. This kit helps you use Alexa to interact with your house by talking about those things - and not a list of devices. …which is great if you are helping someone non-technical make a smarthome. This is not a supported release, but a “share”. I’m sharing what I’ve done, and giving you the code so you can try it yourself if you want. Here is a short video with a few sample interactions from my home - and the kit code: documentation, smartApp, cut/pastes for alexa skills and lambda is here – https://github.com/n8xd/AskHome. The demo code is configured to work with some things at my house…to make it YOUR AskHome, you’ll have to program your house into it. The AskHome kit is for groovy pro…