Hello everyone ,I’m new here, I have echo and smartthings with a new smart garage door opener. Alexa don’t recognize my garage
I would not recommend this. I can speak loudly outside my apartment and actuate my lights with Alexa. Alexa shouldn’t, IMO, be connected to anything that secures your home.
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Totally agree, and for added measure I’d plug it into a smart outlet that you can switch off while you’re away with a Routine, etc.
It’s all about personal choices. Maybe the garage is an outbuilding on your property that’s 2 miles away from the gate on the driveway and he has a 24 Hour Sentry standing guard. Maybe he only wants to voice activate closing the garage, not opening it, and the Sentry is the one who voice activated when the right Car is seen coming up the driveway. More realistically maybe echo is in a place where it can’t be heard from outside the house and he’s going to use the voice remote in his car, just because it’s fun for his kid to do.
Choice is good, and everybody’s use cases are different. It’s good to bring up the safety issue, as Amazon does itself, but I can see situations where someone might want to do it. 
You can set up home or away mode
This is a matter of choice. My echo is in the part of the house that can not be heard from the outside. I use a LFM-20 relay for my opener which uses the device type as a momentary switch. All we have to say is “Alexa or Amazon turn on “name of switch.”” That will open and/or close your garage.The key is obviously the momentary switch device type, which I believe is the only way to use a LFM, and you have to say “Turn on” not “Open.” Oh yeah, since it’s a momentary switch you always have to say “Turn on” whether opening or closing the garage door.
Hope this help.
Michael
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