IFTTT notifications using TTS

So I used to have an Ubi that functioned as an internet-connected speaker which allowed me to push IFTTT notifications via voice (like sports scores when the game ended). My Ubi died this weekend and IFTTT has no alternatives. I just wondered if anyone had a way to get IFTTT notifications brought into the ST environment so I could take advantage of all the TTS options within ST. If not, Iā€™ll just wait for the Alexa API to support notifications and hope itā€™s available to IFTTT. Thanks all.

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LANnouncer might do it. It works with any android device. :sunglasses:

There may also be a way to do it with Tasker, @joshua_lyon might know.

You can also check the quick browse list in the community ā€“ created wiki for voice and TTS smartapps, there may be something else there as well.

http://thingsthataresmart.wiki/index.php?title=How_to_Quick_Browse_the_Community-Created_SmartApps_Forum_Section

I had one of the first ones shipped. I used it for a similar thing - notifications. That was the only thing it was any good at. What a Piece of Junk. My wife did ā€œsomethingā€ with it and itā€™s gone. I still remember my daugther (3 years old at the time) shouting ā€œUbi - you a piece of junkā€ at it.
If I could only get my Alexa to do announcements she would be perfect.

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Itā€™s not easy, but you can get echo to do announcements in one of two ways.

First, you can take advantage of the fact that the echo is also a Bluetooth speaker and use an android device like with LANnouncer mentioned above, and you can get your notifications to play on your Alexa devices.

( as youā€™ll see in the following thread, when this was first suggested I didnā€™t think it would be possible , but I turned out to be dead wrong ā€“ ā€“ the guys got it to work. :sunglasses:)

Or, you can set up askAlexa. That one requires that you sign up for an Amazon developers account and again require some technical expertise to set up, but you can do a lot of magic stuff with that. :wink:

http://thingsthataresmart.wiki/index.php?title=Ask_Alexa

Personally, I am waiting for Amazon to add an official TTS feature, but if youā€™re willing to do some work you can have it now. :tada:

@vitamincm

You might want to follow this thread as well. If youā€™re interested in the TTS aspects of ST and Alexa, youā€™re going to love this app.

[Deprecated] EchoSistant Version 1.2.0

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Thank you for pointing out LANnouncer for me! I live in an Apple house, so I donā€™t think about android devices. Iā€™ll definitely look into this!

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OK, so I have Ask Alexa installed and ā€œworkingā€. Iā€™m fiddling with it now to get the talking to happen. I printed off that Wiki page with instructions. FIFTY SEVEN PAGES!
This might take a while. Iā€™ll check back with you when I (hopefully) get it working.

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I was using the ST text-to-speech app to send commands to Samsung Shape speakers (M5s and M3s) via LAN/WiFi. I was only sending commands to individual/specific speakers (not pairs, nor ā€œallā€ speakers, concurrently.) e.g. it I tried to send a ā€œWelcome homeā€ to two different speakers at the same time, they wouldnā€™t necessarily speak at the same time (due to network latency and such ā€“ they would be out-of-sync.) I bought one of the Samsung ā€œhubsā€ for these speakers, but never went through the extra effort to configure them to the hub. MAYBE I could then send the ā€œWelcome homeā€ message to the hub, and it would ensure that the speakers indeed talk in tandem/concurrently?.. (TBD.)

But, I was happy enough with the single-speaker experience.

You can also have ST hub send it MP3 sound files and such, too.
It also supports a few ā€œbuilt-inā€ features like weather conditions.
Between the TTS and the MP3 options, you can get it to say or play almost anything. (e.g. just-in-time creation of MP3 files, then play those files.)

Sample: First motion in the living room every morning from a ST motion sensor --> downloads textual weather information for your city, and converts it to an MP3 file (with whichever computer voice your desire.) Once that files is created/written, trigger ST to indeed play that file to the M5 Shape speaker thatā€™s in the living room.