EchoSistant or Ask Alexa?

I installed both in the end. But EchoSistant is what is used the most :+1:

Awesome… Diversity is always the best route. Both have pluses and both are great for the users.

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Ask Alexa looks to be able to play back reports via its own speaker. Can EchoSistant do this?

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Hey Corey,

I was hoping to get a little more clarification as to the specific device you are referring to when you said “via it’s own speaker”.

Are you talking about having your reports sent directly to an Echo device or to an external speaker that you have in SmartThings?

I have two dots, but they are not connected to any external speakers. Ask Alexa plays all responses back via the dot units. Does EchoSistant do this?

Corey,
Thanks for clarifying what you meant. Using just your Amazon Dots you can send messages to other rooms of your home to be played back when requested, you can leave messages for family members, and even set a custom reminder.

EchoSistant is very interactive, giving you unparalleled control and feedback about your home.

A couple of examples of what you can do are:

You - Alexa, ask home to check the house.
Alexa - Your homes status is, 1 door open, 0 windows open, 35 lights on, 0 locks unlocked, and your Smart Home Monitor Status is: off , would you like anything else"

You - Alexa, ask home is the garage door open.
Alexa - Yes, the garage door is open, would you like anything else?

You - Alexa, tell home to open the garage door.
Alexa - The garage door is already open, would you like to close i instead.

And this is one of my personal favorites…

Alexa, tell home to turn off the fireplace in 10 minutes

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Okay great! Thanks for clarifying… I just keep seeing references to media devices and the last line in the wiki instructions says this “Required Software Accounts and devices - SmartThings hub and active account. - Amazon Developer portal (Lambda). - Amazon AWS skill kit. - Amazon Alexa enabled device or service. - SmartThings connected speakers.

So I thought the only method of feedback was via an external connected speaker.

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No problem, happy to help.

Sorry for the confusion. That requirement pertains to instant messaging between rooms. Does not apply to playback. As Jason mentioned, Alexa is able to provide feedback and replays recorded messages when prompted. Thanks for your interest and for pointing that out. We will correct the Wiki.

Do you feel you got your questions answered? At the end of the day if you are on the fence I would install Ask Alexa, get it working, then install Echosistant…do a personal bake off and based on your needs figure out which one meets those needs. If you post results then it allows the ‘other’ app to get real world feedback so they may improve their apps.

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My initial comparison/thoughts so far

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Hey @coreylista, fast forward to September 2017! Amazing what three months can do in the life cycle of an app!!!

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I don’t know… I’m not seeing a whole lot of difference myself… Lol

3 months of no sleep! :joy:

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