Due to recent changes in the Logitech Harmony integration into Alexa, I thought it would be a good idea to create a new 2017 version of the guide for this particular integration. I also expect significant changes to the integration in the upcoming year, as we will surely see all three platforms maturing a bit this year. Logi is now focused on HA a bit more, and Amazon simply has plans for global domination…or maybe just home domination, globally.
**Note: This guide is a work in progress. All information contained within is subject to change as Logitech works to make their Alexa Skill functionality more comprehensive.
Smartthings and Alexa Integration
This process is well-documented and can be found in the following links:
https://support.smartthings.com/hc/en-us/articles/207808076-Amazon-Alexa-SmartThings-FAQ
https://support.smartthings.com/hc/en-us/articles/205275404-How-to-connect-Amazon-Alexa-with-SmartThings
Smartthings and Harmony Hub Integration
Prerequisites
- Smartthings Hub with the Smartthings Mobile app installed (requires a Smartthings account)
- Logitech Harmony Home Hub(s) (aka Ultimate Hub or Hub) installed
- Hub(s) should be properly configured in the MyHarmony app or the Logi Harmony Mobile app (requires a MyHarmony account)
- If you have multiple Hubs that you plan to integrate into ST/Alexa, give them unique names (e.g. “Living Room Harmony Hub”, “Den Harmony Hub”, etc).
- Your Harmony Hub(s) should be updated to firmware version 4.12.36 or higher
- Activities should be setup via one of the Harmony apps
- If you have multiple Hubs that you plan on integrating into ST/Alexa, give them unique names.
- Favorites (for TV channels) should be added during the setup process for your Watch TV Activity (if applicable)
- Hub(s) should be properly configured in the MyHarmony app or the Logi Harmony Mobile app (requires a MyHarmony account)
Integration Steps
- In the ST Mobile App, go to My Home->Things->Add a Thing.
- Tap Add Device Manually.
- Tap Smartthings Labs → Logitech Harmony Home Hub (Labs).
- Tap Connect Now and follow the steps for authentication.
- Discovery should start and after a while ST should find your Harmony Hub(s) and Activities.
- Tap Select Harmony Hubs and check the hubs you want to integrate.
- Tap Select Harmony Activities and check the activities you want to integrate.
- Tap Done.
- ST should now see your Harmony Hub(s) and/or Activities as Devices in the Add a Thing view.
- This step sometimes takes a while, so be patient.
– OR – - You can press X to return to Things view. You should be able to see all the Harmony Hub(s) and/or Activities you just added as Things if adding was successful.
- Return to Add a Thing view and continue with step 10.
- This step sometimes takes a while, so be patient.
- Once you see all the Harmony Hub(s) and/or Activities you selected in steps 6 and 7, tap Save
- You should now see your Harmony Hub(s) and/or Activities on the Things list (if not, see step 9, or verify that all Hubs and Activities were properly selected by repeating steps 1-8).
After step 9 and/or 11, all of your Harmony Hub(s) and/or Activities should be accessible as Devices in ST. These Devices can now be controlled as basic On/Off toggle Switches via the Things view, or included in Automation Routines and Smartapps.
This also means that if you have enabled the Smartthings Skill in Alexa (Alexa app->Smart Home->Skills->Smartthings), the Activities can now be voice-controlled as basic On/Off Switches by Alexa using the Activity name (e.g. “Alexa, turn on the TV” or “Alexa, turn on Watch TV”).
For those experiencing at status update lag between Harmony Activities and ST, please read the following post:
Alexa and Harmony Hub Integration
Logitech has created 2 skills to integrate with Alexa. Users are currently limited to associating only ONE Harmony Hub to each skill. The hub is selected by the user from a list of currently configured Harmony Hubs in the user’s My Harmony configuration during the setup of each skill.
(Note: Many ST Community members advise using Yonomi for multiple Harmony Hub scenarios.)
- Harmony – Optimized for Smart Home Skill (blue icon in the Alexa Skills store)
- Direct Alexa trigger phrase (e.g. “Alexa”, “Echo”, “Amazon” or “Computer”)
- Allows Alexa voice-control of the On/Off state of Activities (e.g. “Alexa turn on the TV”, “Echo turn off the Den Roku”, etc.).
- Allows you to setup Activities aliases during the setup process (e.g. “Xbox” as an alias for “Play Xbox One”, “Sleepy Time” as an alias for “Watch LMN”, etc.).
- Extracts television (cable, satellite or air) channels set as Favorites and installed Roku channels as voice-controllable On/Off devices (e.g. “Alexa turn on PBS”, “Alexa turn off Youtube”, etc.).
- Harmony Skill (red icon in Alexa Skills Store)
- Skill access trigger phrase (e.g “Alexa tell Harmony…”, “Echo tell Harmony…”, or “Amazon tell Harmony…”)
- Allows Alexa voice-control of the On/Off state of Activities (e.g. “Alexa tell Harmony to turn on the TV”, “Echo tell Harmony to turn off the Den Roku”, etc.).
- Allows Alexa voice-control of volume, channel navigation, play state and directional navigation within some Activities (e.g. “Alexa, tell Harmony to increase the volume”, “Echo, tell Harmony to pause”, “Amazon, tell Harmony channel up”, etc.).
Commands Reference: [Work in Progress]
- Activities
- Harmony Smart Home Syntax: [TRIGGER] + [COMMAND]
- “Alexa, turn on Netflix.”
- Harmony Syntax: [HARMONY TRIGGER] + [COMMAND]
- “Alexa, tell Harmony to turn on Netflix.”
- Variations:
- [TRIGGER | HARMONY TRIGGER] + [ACTIVITY | FRIENDLY NAME] + [“on” | “off”]
- “Alexa, ESPN on.”
- “Alexa, tell Harmony Watch TV off.”
- [TRIGGER | HARMONY TRIGGER] + “turn” + [“on” | “off”] + [ACTIVITY | FRIENDLY NAME]
- “Alexa, turn off the TV.”
- “Alexa, tell Harmony to turn off the TV.”
- [TRIGGER | HARMONY TRIGGER] + “turn” + [ACTIVITY | FRIENDLY NAME] + [“on” | “off”]
- “Alexa, turn the TV on.”
- “Alexa, tell Harmony turn the TV on.”
- [HARMONY TRIGGER] + “switch to” + [ACTIVITY | FRIENDLY NAME]
- “Alexa, switch to ESPN.”
- “Alexa, tell Harmony switch to Watch ESPN.”
- [TRIGGER | HARMONY TRIGGER] + [ACTIVITY | FRIENDLY NAME] + [“on” | “off”]
- Harmony Smart Home Syntax: [TRIGGER] + [COMMAND]
- Channels (television-based Activities; this may also include radio-based Activities, but I haven’t tested)
- Syntax: [HARMONY TRIGGER] + [COMMAND]
- Variations:
- [HARMONY TRIGGER] + “channel” + [“up” | “down”]
- Volume (all Activities with a volume controller)
- Syntax: [HARMONY TRIGGER] + [COMMAND]
- Volume Increase Variations:
- [HARMONY TRIGGER] + [“increase” | “raise” | etc] + “volume”
- [HARMONY TRIGGER] + “volume up”
- [HARMONY TRIGGER] + “turn it up”
- [HARMONY TRIGGER] + [VOLUME UP VARIATION] + “by” + [NUMBER (1…20)]
- Volume Decrease Variations:
- [HARMONY TRIGGER] + [“decrease” | “lower” | “reduce” | etc] + “volume”
- [HARMONY TRIGGER] + “volume down”
- [HARMONY TRIGGER] + “turn it down”
- [HARMONY TRIGGER] + [VOLUME DOWN VARIATION] + “by” + [NUMBER (1…20)]
- Mute: [HARMONY TRIGGER] + “mute” (functions as a toggle for mute on/off)
- Unmute Variations:
- [HARMONY TRIGGER] + [“unmute” | “mute”]
- [HARMONY TRIGGER] + [VOLUME UP VARIATION| VOLUME DOWN VARIATION]
- Volume Options:
- [HARMONY TRIGGER] + “set volume [NUMBER (1…10)]”
- Alexa Response: “Okay. I’ll change the volume by [NUMBER] units going forward.”
- Changes the number of levels that the volume changes per command.
- [HARMONY TRIGGER] + “set volume [NUMBER (1…10)]”
- Play Controls (video and audio Activities)
- Play Variations:
- Sends the Play command to an Activity’s primary device in a paused or stopped state.
- [HARMONY TRIGGER] + “play”
- Pause Variations:
- Sends the Pause command to an Activity’s primary device in a play state.
- [HARMONY TRIGGER] + [“pause” | “stop”]
- Resume Variations:
- Sends the Play command to an Activity’s primary device in a paused or stopped state.
- [HARMONY TRIGGER] + [“resume” | “continue” | “play” | “pause” | “stop”]
- Skip Variations
- Sends Skip variation commands to an Activity’s primary device in any state.
- [HARMONY TRIGGER] + [“skip” | “jump” | “go” | etc] + [“back” | “forward”]
- Issues: I was unable to get my Time Warner Cable TV to skip forward, though skip back worked fine.
- Play Variations:
- Direction Controls
- This is specific to some Activities that allow direction controls.
- Syntax: [HARMONY TRIGGER] + [COMMAND]
- Variations: [HARMONY TRIGGER] + [“up” | “down” | “left” | “right”]
- Variations: [HARMONY TRIGGER] + [“up” | “down”] – currently only function to Channel Up/Down within a TV activity
- Other Controls
- There are other commands currently built-in, though I don’t know that all of them have attached functionality.
- “Alexa, tell Harmony to sync”
- Alexa response: “Alexa is syncing with your Logitech Harmony account. This may take 30 seconds…”
- “Alexa, tell Harmony to set sleep timer for [NUMBER] minutes”
- Alexa response: “Okay. Harmony will turn off your Activity in [NUMBER] minutes.”
- Harmony will send an End Activity command (Power Off All) in the specified number of minutes.
- “Alexa, tell Harmony to cancel sleep timer” will cancel the previously set timer.
- Alexa repsonse: “Okay, your sleep timer has been cleared.”
- “Alexa, tell Harmony to cancel”
- Despite being a valid command, I was not able to determine the context/conditions for its use. It will not cancel the sleep timer.
This is simply a quick first pass based upon my experience over the past day of working with the new Harmony skill. I will try to flesh this out and make more edits over the next few days. If there are any corrections or modifications that need to be made, please do so if you have the appropriate permissions level, or simply post them as replies if you do not have edit permissions.