How do I get the speaker companion smart app?

Please correct me if I’m wrong but I think there is a way to make spoken announcement in the new app directly. In automations you can (after setting your condition) choose an action named “Send notification to members” and there is “Read message aloud” or something like that. Mine is greyed out because I do not have Sonos etc. I do actually need this kind of functionality in my system too.
If I get cheapish Ikea Symfonisk speaker, will it behave 100% like Sonos in SmartThings?

@GSzabados it’s difficult to document the differences with screenshot as I do not have a side by side view with my version of the app and the web interface vs the non limited. But often when I read guides I come across steps that can’t be completed because certain buttons in missing from my UI.

@Olli-Pekka_Kurppa That is true, but I want this to happen in sync, just like when playing music from the sonos app, the music is perfectly synced across all speakers. Not the same is the case when it comes to the TTS notifications from the smartthings apps, then you have a whole bunch of voices talking over each other, at least that’s my experience so far. Thats one of the tings that I am trying to get around :wink:

Can you give some example. You might just have the perception that it is not there and your one is different, but meanwhile it has been removed ages ago.

I believe you will not be able to sync TTS with SmartThings as that is a proprietary function of those devices and TTS is not falling into that usecase when the sync is working. It issues the command one by one to the speakers separately, maybe if you would use Groul feature, but I have no idea is that really working well then. I’ve read some other topics where people told similar unsynced messages were all around when they used Alexa devices.

The first screenshot i posted speaks for it self, and Brad_ST confirms that this is due to regional limitations. Further more from my web IU i am missing a GitHub integration feature right nere
Capture
I’ve discussed in comment sections with some people on youtube and they all claim that it should be there until one suggested that i might be a wrong region.

Also, I was following some guide on how to install smart app “app store” into smartthings, and again i ran into steps that i could not complete because the described input fields and forms didn’t exist. In this case I wasn’t confirmed that that was due to regional limitations, this could probably be an old feature.

Also, was discussing in two other threads with some people here in the community about adding a tasmota flashed sonoff, everyone keeps telling me to enter the ip address of the device and choose the type, but in my add device > new device page, there are no way to enter ip address, and i did not have same device types available as some other people was mentioning. Someone told me to tap on the newly added device in the mobile app and that would let me enter the ip address, but no there is zero input fields.

:crossed_fingers: that they will soon do a full release in my region.

Could you do me a favor and tell me if this page looks the same for you? My Devices > New Device

If it looks different, would you please post a screenshot of how yours look. Thanks

The GitHub connection is not there in the UK (Eu-West1). Honestly, I’ve never used it.

But you can look here:

Yes, the add device page looks the same. And if you are trying to add the Device, then you first need to add the two custom Device Handlers first in the My Device Handler section on the top.

To add the IP, you need to edit the settings part and not the Device itself. Either click on the small edit link in the left column in the IDE device page, or in the app, when you look at the device click on the cog wheel and for the settings or the … in the top right and settings in the new app. If the settings is not there just click somewhere else and click again on the … on the top right and it will list the settings.

I know about the device handler, that was mentioned in the guide. So I added that,

Maybe the device handler is wrong or maybe I have added a device mistakenly, but I never got around to be able to enter ip anywhere. Maybe because I have chosen a wrong device type? Since there is no sonoff or tasmota device type, i chose “outlet”, that was the closet thing i could think of, and outlet is one of the capabilities in the device handler (among other). Or maybe I entered a wrong “network id” the device has multiple network identifiers, it has an ip, a public name, a mac address. I don’t know which of these smartthings considers the “network id” its not exactly self explanatory to me.

On the device page I don’t see a edit link in the left column, again this could be because i already messed up the device creation process…


not sure if you refer to the devices’ page or the device (list) page, neither of these view has edit link.

Same goes in the app, there is no edit cog btw, there is a three dot menu button which opens two options “edit” and “information” in edit view I can change name, location, room. nothing else, the information page is basically empty.

About the github integration. Ok thats just how it is… I use git every day and would definitly benefit a lot from having a personal cloud repository on a provider like github to do versioning on all of my device handlers and smart apps. I’ve already made a lot of changes to multiple of the ones i have copy pasted, would be nice with git history… also it seems pretty stone age to me to manually copy paste raw code when i could simple just fork a repo :joy:

You haven’t scrolled down to the bottom of the list. Self published custom DHs are there. Above that are alphabetical sorted ST provided device handlers.

When you selected the right DH then you will see where to edit, either in the IDE or the App.

I’ve thought you are using this DH.

Anyhow, you will find it on the bottom.

PS.:
I actually prefer this firmware, DH and SmartApp for my Sonoff/ESP based devices.

If you haven’t forked, but used the developer’s repo, then you would see how the layout would change completely from one day to another.
Actually that is happening with the new ST UX plugins. One day the temperature history was showing up as a line graph, next day it was a bar graph. A few days later it is just crashing the app when you try to open… (And this is only ST tweaking the UX plugin for temperature/humidity/power history. And you cannot fork it. ;))

You might want to look at the Automations for Speaker Group announcements on your speakers. That has been released with the previous/current version of the new App.

First of all, thanks a lot for all your time and patience… You were absolutly correct, I did not scroll to the bottom, i hit “t” on my keyboard when the dropdown was open and was taken to the devices starting with t, and there were no tasmota. Never would have guessed that it would be all the way down at the bottom.

I might try the other firmware and app that you are referring to. Im not super happy with the current one, although I like tasmota a lot…

Regarding the “Speaker Group” thing you are mentioning, how do I create a speaker group? I have two sonos speaker are they compatible for groups? Just got the update 6 hours ago and I am able to select both speakers and they are reading text in almost perfect sync which is great.

On the main screen of the new app top right + icon. And it should list there speaker groups.

I only see light groups. And I am sure my app is up to date. So maybe it’s a regional limitation, or it doesn’t show up because I don’t have any added speakers that are compatible for grouping.

Have you updated recently, I mean today or yesterday? It seems to be not there anymore. But was with the previous version.

The Speaker Companion is available in my smartthings app in Norway. Should be in Denmark also

New or classic app? I still don’t see anything else than the SmartThings Home Monitor

In the Classic app. Open the app. Go to Marketplace - smartapps and choose Music & Sounds

1 Like

Anyone knows why Speaker Companion Smart App does not appear in the New App ?

It may be region locked meaning it is not available in all regions.

Just to check, you are clicking + in the upper right of the dashboard and selecting smartapp?

Yes my friend, the only Smart Apps I can see are (names could be not exactly because Im translating from Spanish): Home Care Wizard (Samsung), Door Automatic Lock Improved (Arnaud), SmartLighting (SmartThings), Color Coordinator (Michael Struck), Nice Temperature (SmartThings), Thermostat Modes Director (Tim Slagle), Door Caller (brian@bevey.org) and in Personalized section: ADT Tools 2 (Mavrrick) (migrated from Classic App). By the way Im in Mexico, I can see it in Classic App, I have made a lot of Smart Apps with it to chime the Aeotec Siren in different ways when several actions are done.