April 2016 bug
This appears to be fixed with an Amazon update around May 15, 2016.
- if Alexa is giving a chime error tone for commands that have worked for months…
Report the echo failures to Amazon.
Amazon should confirm that an update that they did on April 4 broke part of voice recognition in that echo is having trouble telling that some requests are for home automation rather than for music. It hears the phrase correctly, but then sends it to the wrong processing program.
It turns out this is the reverse of the usual reserved word issue! “Turn on” used to be reserved for home automation devices, but it now works as a music command. ( Try “Alexa, turn on Abbey Road.”).
They are aware of the problem and are working on a fix.
In the meantime, any name which isn’t working can probably be fixed by adding the word “lights” to the end of it. The easiest way to do this is with a new temporary echo group. So if “Hallway” doesn’t work, make a new group for the same devices called “hallway lights.” That should work fine until they get the fix in.
If you open up a ticket, they will let you know once the fix is ready.
Everyone agrees that this is extremely annoying, but the good news is that they are working on it.
(there is a separate unrelated problem. If echo says that a SmartThings-controlled device is “not available” but the action requested is still performed, there is a timeout issue between SmartThings and Echo which appears to be on the ST side. That one should be reported to ST.)