Amazon Echo

Its sad to see that Developer makes Amazon’s Echo control Wink and Nest devices not smart things. Did any ST developer apply for developer API or are they too damn busy messing with samsung. SmartThings has went down hill hub always having issues lack of any updates to support new IoT.

I’m sure plenty of ST developers or would-be developers applied… I applied… but didn’t get selected yet. I haven’t any real issues with my ST hub or service besides some minor issues with some frequent internet connection issues at times when scheduled events were supposed to happen (lights automatically turn on/off)… but that was my internet connection’s fault. Would be nice if, on failure to get a response, the system would try again in a brief period of time but that’s not a failure, really, just something that hasn’t been set up yet.

Staff have said in the forums that smartthings did apply for the echo developers program.

Amazon selected only a couple of companies for the initial rollout, both, not coincidentally, companies that sell a lot of the integrated items through Amazon.

Since the echo isn’t even available for general purchase yet, I’m sure there will be many more integrations created as Amazon widens the developers program.

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I applied and got access but have not had time to look at it a whole lot. If they gave me access I don’t think they are being overly picky :slight_smile:

I applied and they never contacted me…now I am sad :frowning: LOL

I asked Alexa a question today and she said “I don’t understand the question”
So I asked “Alexa, why are you so stupid” expecting “I don’t understand the question” but no she replied…“You can always send your feedback to Amazon Support”…LOL

Well played Alexa, well played…

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I have echo developer access. I am working on integration, it will take some time to get the app out as it was only last week that Amazon released the preliminary guidelines on how echo apps will be published. The SmartApp side is actually the easiest point of configuration. You need to meet several criteria before Amazon will let you allow others to use an app you have created, and that is going to be the bottleneck for most developers.

  1. You must be prepared to upload an icon for your application of the
    size 108 pixels x 108 pixels.
  2. You must use an SSL certificate from an Amazon-approved certificate authority.
  3. You must provide 3 ‘example phrases’ in the Alexa AppKit portion of our developer portal that a user can say when interacting with your app. If you intend to allow users of your Alexa app to create an account or link to an existing account, you will need to host the privacy policy at a URL, and supply that URL via the Alexa AppKit portion of our developer portal.
  4. Highly Recommended: You should host your application in a load-balanced, monitored environment that is
    resilient to failure and that can auto scale based on demand.
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@jodyalbritton Bummer, so you’re saying that you need to write an echo app as well?
Does the current HUE integration work that way?

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At the minimum you have to create a schema of intents and sample utterances. This step is fairly straightforward and is done in the Alexa Appkit portal. Once an intent is recognized, it then makes a call to the smartapp and the smartapp is responsible for returning data in a format that the echo can understand.

I think so. The hue functionality appears in the settings menu under connected home. It is just a simple interface for connecting to your hue bridge and selecting the bulbs you wish to control. It also has grouping functionality so you can group all of the hue bulbs in your living room together and simply address them as living room. “Dim the living room lights to twenty percent” is an example of that. Still very early days. I have add access to the SDK for over a week, but I got the invite while I was in the middle of moving. I also don’t know how much I can reveal about the inner workings of the SDK, but I will find that out too.

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I’m at Amazon AWS Loft for a 3 hour 1 hour + networking etc. seminar, San Francisco…

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How long do we have to wait until Echo works with ST? Other platforms are intergrated already.

Since the SDK isn’t public yet, any integration is limited to whoever was actually accepted to check out the SDK. Even then, I think there’s an issue with actually packaging and distributing what’s been developed so it could be a while still before we see proper integration between Echo and ST. The SDK is still very new, so give it some time. I don’t think anyone has any timeline unless the ST core devs have been working on it and have it on their roadmap, which I haven’t heard of yet. Considering how few people own an Echo, I wouldn’t assume it’s high on their list… especially over getting more sensors and switches and things integrated.

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As far as I know, the only two that work right now are Phillips Hues and WeMo switches. None of the other WeMo devices work yet, nor any other platforms. A lot of people are working on a lot of different things, including some independent developers on some SmartThings stuff.

So it’s very early days yet. You can’t even buy an echo unless you got an invitation.

So I’m sure we’ll see something, but I expect it may not happen until late summer or early fall.

Refer to my post in related thread…

Thx! I got my Echo and its great. Much better than the Ivee.

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Just got my invite & ordered one. This summer should be fun with an Apple Watch, Echo & a v2 hub. Woot!

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Yay, mine is shipping today.

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Just ordered my second today. The waiting starts again Estimated Delivery July 14-20. Had to pay $50 more this time also.

I am wondering if I should order a second one thinking there might eventually be a Gen 2 but I decided to go for it.

How’d you manage to get a second one? Is it through separate prime account?

Same prime account, prime lets you invite others in your family to share your prime account. So I used my wife’s account to place a second order.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200444180

@Ron Multiple units do not yet work cooperatively, correct? I received mine yesterday and think it’s the best thing since sliced bread. I had thought about ordering another, but I’ve read that you must keep them out of listening range of the other.

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