Amazon Echo DOES Voice Notifications!

Can iOS users take advantage of this also? Or this limited to Android?

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Too much of a pain. I wish the would just integrate locks and switch and sensor status directly with echo just like lights/switch on off.

Sharptools and Tasker are Android only.

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Looks like you beat me to it! I am in the process of recording a bunch of canned responses in Alexa’s voice using the Alexa webapp found here https://alexaweb.herokuapp.com/

Then those recorded mp3’s will be added to a smartapp similar to my Morgan Freeman notification smartapp. While it may not handle custom TTS phrases, I will attempt to cover as many common phrases as possible. I really wanted the smooth, sultry voice of Alexa to tell me when someone is bashing in my front door or the basement is flooding :smile:

I plan to run it using VLCThing + VLC on a RPi

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Anyone know what’s going on with the keybounce website? I’m getting a 404

Well thanks for pointing out to use the old version of BigTalker as I finally got that set up working correctly on my Nexus. And great now I really have another reason to just buy the Echo and quit putting it off.

Get it! It’s good for you! Lol

If it wasn’t for echo I wouldn’t have an HA.

I’ve always believed automation means it does it by itself or I can tell it to. Using a mobile device to turn on a light our unlock the door is just like flipping a switch… What’s the point in spending the money?

The echo makes HA.

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Wait help me out here, can I get Morgan to talk to me via Echo or only Sonos

Who is Morgan?

Morgan Freeman. See post #24.

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Yep, The Echo was the main reason for my Wife’s approval on HA expansion :smile:

I have this running on a Tablet for almost 4 months now and it works perfect. Android Tablet, connected via Bluetooth to Echo, running Private Dancer (DLNA Render), Automate (for task automations), SharpTools, SmartTiles (the best Dashboard), IFTTT app to receive notifications (to play messages or start actions) and the Ring app so it shows me who is at the Front Door.
Note: Since the begging of this project I was able to keep the Bluetooth connection to Echo, while playing Amazon Prime music receive Notifications from the Tablet and start commands on the Echo.

Since then I’ve already added a second Android tablet, now to my Bedroom (the first one is on the Living room), and it is also working great (with Echo).

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Just go here: http://www.keybounce.com/

Thanks! worked, going to try this today.

LOL indeed. Your wish is my command. Check out Rule Machine, now with the ability to speak a message.

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You should be able to have Morgan Freeman talk to you via Echo using the VLC Thing Device Type with VLC installed on a Windows/Mac/Linux machine. Then you just redirect the audio output from the computer to the Echo using Bluetooth. I just setup VLC Thing with my Raspberry Pi B+ but I’m experiencing issues with audio clipping during playback. Still investigating.

I got to the point where i can play the test from my phone and have it play on the Echo, however its super jerky and not smooth, the bluetooth connection between the Echo and my computer I guess sucks :frowning:

Unfortunately the voice is not as smooth as Alexa. That’s because Alexa us text to speech and this is voice synthesis… at least that’s how I understand it.

Something I did that helps…

Make your message just like this, including the dots

…This is a test

This dots cause a pause, which helped mine be much smoother.

Let me know if that helps

My wife told me she’d kill me if I didn’t get rid of that voice immediately. I even had it telling her how beautiful and wise she is. Man, four dots doesn’t fix that!!

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This seems to work pretty well for me. Based on JDR’s comments about the Echo not being usable for anything else while Bluetooth is connected, I never even bothered to try. But after the OP’s comments, I installed the required apps. The voice is not quite as good as Alexa, but it is pretty good. I installed LAN announcer on a Samsung tablet we use in the kitchen, and after installing it, the tablet downloaded some Samsung premium TTS voice. I would say that it’s probably about 90% as good as Alexa.

Also, I have not noticed any functionality loss of the Echo while it’s paired as a Bluetooth speaker. I can still use it to stream it’s own music, and respond to voice commands. I don’t get the notifications while it’s streaming music, but I consider that to be expected.

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Of that you aren’t getting notifications during streaming… Mine has been working great.

One thing I did was add 4 … Little dots before each message “…This is how I do it”

This causes a pause allowing echo to stop the music and start the speech without an overrun of the two.

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