I’m a programmer that has experience with many languages and even amazon web services so my idea of “ease if installation” might not be as reliable than the average person. None of it confused me, but there were many steps involved so “easy” compared to other apps I’d say it was a lot more involved.
As for features I’d say EchoSistant is on the right track with the use of separate profiles for invocation words. Because having to "ask home, or house, then a question is very unnatural to me. However this does make the setup more involved than Ask Alexa. Though one issue I have noticed is the use or “the” and “my” needs to correlate in certain circumstances. For instance “Alexa, turn the lights off in THE office” works, but “Alexa, turn the lights off in MY office” does not.
I also like the ability to enable the use of PIN codes only when it certain modes. Only when the mode is set to home will I be able to lock unlock the front door without having the supply a PIN. Which makes it more convenient. Same goes for setting the alarm on or off depending on the current mode.
Ask Alexa seems to have more integration with current apps when it comes to message queuing, but I’ve yet to delve into that functionality.
So far my only gripe with either solution is the need to the invocation word. Having to add “at/ask” invocation to “unlock the Front Door” isn’t very natural. Is the solution to create a “front” profile or “door” profile? But then would we need the use for an alias name for the device because we would need to repeat “front front” or “door door” in this situation?
Anyway that’s what I’ve come up with so far. I really enjoy messing around with stuff like this and it’s a total blast when when it works and is way easier than getting out the phone to use the horrible smartthings app. So keep up the good work!!