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Will SmartThings ever update their Alexa integration?
Currently its really fast but saying turn on and turn off means itâs limited.
Can you use it to trigger a Core Piston?
The turn on and turn off construction is a limitation on the Amazon side if you donât want to have it say âecho, tell smartthings toâŠâ
It can trigger a core piston, by using a virtual switch. You have the echo turn the virtual switch on or off and have the piston subscribe to that switch.
All of that said, if you have a technical background, there are two different community created smart apps that use very sophisticated Alexa skills and let you do all kinds of things that the official integration does not. One is called askAlexa and the other is called EchoSistant. You can find both on the quick browse lists for âvoiceâ smartapps in the community â created wiki.
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Iâve got AskAlexa setup which is great but I find executing a command is faster with the official integration.
Hopefully Amazon will open up more commands to SmartThings in future.
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The speed issue is really inconsistentâŠI have improved the reaction time significantly since the app was developed, but the round trip of commands do create a little of a delay.
Glad you are enjoying the app.
EchoSistant can definitely do this⊠as well as routines and a whole lot more. Itâs fast, but there is always the cloud to deal with for delays.
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Even if you donât have Ask Alexa (or donât want to use it with Core), you can use my other app âAlexa Helperâ to define a virtual switch and have that switch activate a Core piston!
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The custom skills have Evolve-d, yet it is true you still need a âconnectorâ to activate the skill. EchoSistant is able to take advantage of the IN connector to give a more natural speaking integration with Alexa. The successful use of it comes from creative naming of devices and Profiles.
One can easily say: Alexa, lights on IN my Home or lights off IN the bedroom OR TV on in the Living room and enjoy a faster action response than the official integration. The problem remains the overwhelming initial set up of the custom skill, but many would argue that is well worth the tryâŠ
And running Pistons or routines, is as easy as saying: Alexa run the X Piston OR simply Alexa tell my Home Good Night! ( no virtual switches needed)
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Itâs the same cloud that the official integration has to deal withâŠ
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I am a new user for Smartthings, but have had the Echo for a while. I have tried for hours to get the Echo o discover my ST Hub, but it does not. I have rebooted everything, but the Echo never sees it. I have read the FAQ, and there are no options in my android app for âconnected homeâ or some such.
The ST Hub is working fine, having recognized by Philips Hue bulbs and a few GE smartswitches. However, to get Alexa control over the GE Smartswitches, I have to link the Echo to the ST Hub, and it simply does not see it.
What am I missing?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Dennis
You need to go into the Alexa app or Alexa.amazon.com on a browser, select Smart Home from the menu and connect Alexa to ST that way.
Kraeg
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It can definitely be confusing, but as @kraegd mentioned, it sounds like the part that youâre missing is that you have to open the Amazon app on your device in order to authorize the SmartThings connection. Not the SmartThings app.
See the official instructions here:
Thanks to all that responded. However, I contacted Smartthings support and learned the following: (excerpt from chat with tech support agent Luis)
âLuis
In a nutshell we split north america up between a few servers to handle the load. Recently we introduced the ability to use Samsung Accounts to sign in. However any new accounts created get auto routed to Server 4. Somehow you also had a location under server 1 and server 4. Itâs kinda of a mess, which should be fixed soon, but until then the only way to get t it working weâll need to essentially start from scratch. Re-add the hub, devices and have Alexa run the discovery.â
Luis then deleted my hub from the system. When I get home tonight I will re-initialize it from scratch and then it should appear in my Alexa app. Up to this point, I did everything that kraegd and JDRoberts suggested, but I never saw a connected hub, nor any of the devices that the hub had control over. Hopefully tonight it will all be rectified. I post this in case someone else is having the same problem as me.
Thanks again to everyone and I will report back.
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Is it possible to ask alexa to set the time of an action in smart things? Or, can echo be used to initiate am action through smart things at a particular time?
âAlexa, turn the coffee maker on at 6:30AMâ⊠possible?
Not with the standard features if you want to give the time as part of the voice command.
It is possible to create an Alexa routine (Not a smartthings routine) in the official Alexa app which will run at a specific time of day every day, but itâs a very simple rule. And you donât use voice to initiate it. So itâs a one time setup and then it runs at the specified time until you change the routine again. But you donât have voice control of it.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=202200060
It is also possible to use one of two very sophisticated smartapps, ask Alexa or echo assistant, but the setup for these is fairly complicated.
See the quick browse lists in the community â created wiki in the smartapps section and look on the âvoiceâ list to find both of these Smartapps. Both are good, but they have slightly different features.