How do you run Routines from Alexa?

You change it on the Amazon developers site where you pasted the codes.

I don’t know how the updated version of askAlexa is since I don’t currently have it loaded in ST. Echosistant might be more conversational.

Instead of using “SmartThings” or “House” as invocation for AskAlexa, simply use a friendly name. I settled on “Alfred.”

So when instead of saying, “Alexa, tell Smartthings/house goodnight” it would be way more user friendly to say “Alexa, tell Alfred goodnight.” Instead of “Alexa, ask SmartThings/house for the home status,” you can say, “Alexa, ask Alfred for the home status.”

I just received a few echo dots for Christmas and I am trying to use the Routines in the Amazon Alexa app. I set it up using the phrase “Alexa Watch TV” and it is supposed to turn the Mode to Movie and then run a specific scene from my Hues. However, she doesn’t understand when I say “Alexa Watch TV” but I can run the Routine from within the app. What am I doing wrong? Also, I am wondering if there is a better way to do this as I ran into the problem with the Mode the other night when my Mode changed to Home when my daughter came back and all the lights went on bright. I guess it was following the I’m Back routine in smartthings which sets the mode to “Home” when someone arrives.

Have you done the voice training with Alexa? That might help her understand a little better. I have to repeat myself often.

I have run into a major problem with routines. I have setup a virtual momentary contact and a Macro in Ask Alexa. When I say “Alexa Family Room” the Den Dimmer and the Den lamp should come on. But many times the Den Dimmer will come on and the den lamp will come on and turn off a split second later. This also happens in reverse. If I say Alexa Family room" and the lights are on the Den dimmer will turn off and the Den lamp will go off then back on. I have tried it with Ask Alexa and WebCoRe and it does the same thing.

If I use the Alexa group and not Ask Alexa the Family room works as it should. So something in Ask Alexa is causing this. I have no idea on how to figure this out.

No I haven’t. I will try that.

I don’t see that option in my app? How do I do that?

In the Amazon Alexa app, go to settings>accounts>your voice. There was a section just for voice training previously, but it’s now part of the voice profile.

I don’t have that in my app. Just have Notifications, Music & Media, Flash Briefing, Routines, Sports Update, Traffic, Calendar, Lists, Voice Purchasing.

Are you on IOS or Android?

Desktop Alexa:
Capture

Mobile app Alexa:
Capture

I am on iOS under settings.

Might have to go the help tab. Then look for Alexa voice topics.

Hey so I read most of the back and forth here hoping to find my issue but it’s not here. So I’ll just go ahead and ask it.

I’ve been trying to figure out if, once intergraded, can I use my smart things app to automate a previously installed Routine on Alexa? For instance, “Alexa. Good Morning” has Alexa turn on some lights and read me my flash briefing. Can I create a smart things routine at 9am to turn on other lights, activate my “Alexa. Good morning” routine, then turn on a plug?

At the present time, Amazon does not offer any way to have a third-party device have Alexa perform an Alexa action.

Some community members use a separate android device with the “text to speech” (TTS) capability and have it literally speak to the echo to trigger events. It’s a hack, but it will work for some use cases. :sunglasses:See the following:

That’s so weird but actually genius! Thank you so much for passing that on. I’ve searched the topic a ton and haven’t come across that solution. Thanks again!!

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So I have a routine to turn on two Peanut smart plugs and set my ceiling fan to medium as a routine in SmartThings… I also have a routine to turn all those off… Those routines work fine in the ST app but will not work with Alexa…

What am I doing wrong here? These aren’t locks or security related so I would think they would work natively…

Thanks

If those are the ONLY devices in your routines they should work. If you see a message in the SmartThings native integration app like :The following routines cannot be used… then you will need to use a custom skill like Ask Alexa to run them. Or if you have web core you could run them when a virtual switch is tripped within Alexa. There are many options to do this, but the native one MIGHT not be the best suited…

Have you exposed the ST Routines to Alexa via the Alexa SmartApp? You then need to discover new devices in the Alexa Phone App for the ST Routines to show up.

Also, please note that Alexa now has Routines too. Alexa Routines are different from ST Routines. They are used to perform a sequence of activities based on a voice command. I find them to be very handy for certain tasks.

Amazon Alexa (stand alone) app Routines can execute on a schedule also, not just by voice. The ST Routines will show up as Scenes in the Amazon Alexa app. You devices will need to be discovered with Alexa if they aren’t already. You can also have askAlexa execute ST Routines by voice control.

The naming can get confusing when one company calls it a routine and another calls that same thing a scene but then has routines also. The Amazon Alexa app is not to be confused with askAlexa app for ST that was created by @MichaelS.

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Thanks for the replies everyone.

What I do is say “Alexa Bedroom morning” she just makes the blip sound and doesn’t do anything. Screenshots should help.