Does anyone know of any way to connect Amazon Echo devices to SmartThings NOW (2024) with Edge drivers so that Echos can be controlled with SmartThings routines?
Surely by now, some enterprising person has written some drivers and figured out a way to integrate Echo devices into SmartThings again. Prior to Edge, there was a Groovy method to get SmartThings to play sounds and text through Echo speakers, but that went away with Groovy.
Is anything out there or anything in the works?
I’m using my Sonos speakers now, but they are very unreliable and Sonos may or may not fix the issues. Evidently they are aware of them, but since Sonos became a publicly traded company, there seems to be very little new development in their software or any innovation at all.
Since Amazon is pretty aggressive with technology innovation, I’m hoping their Alexa/Echo API is open and robust and some cleaver SmartThings developer has figured out a way to connect Echo to SmartThings again.
There is no way to connect the echo devices directly.
However, Amazon has a feature called “Alexa routines” and these can cause a specific echo device (or all of the echo devices on your account, you get to select which ones) to make an announcement or play a sound effect or you can change some of the other settings.
So what people generally do is create a virtual device on SmartThings and then use that virtual device to trigger the Alexa routine that tells the echo device what to do. It’s a very popular use case. People use them for doorbell, chimes, holiday greetings, warning sounds, all kinds of things.
So basically, first you figure out how to do what you want to do with an Alexa routine (not a SmartThings routine) and then you trigger that Alexa routine by using a smartthings device.
You can read the details in the community FAQ
FAQ: Can I trigger an Echo Action without Speaking to It?
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Hubitat with either Mira or HubiThings Replica gets you access again to Echo Speaks.
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If you integrate ST with Node-red you can send any personalised message to Echo, including values. This is done using an Alexa node which can also send notifications to your phone.
You will need some form of ‘always on’ computer device.
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Thank you!
Yes. I have been doing this. However, I have lots of routines that I would like voice activity on, and that would require creating lots of switches and contacts (since my Alexa doesn’t always respond to virtual switches consistently.
It would be so much easier just to send the announcement directly to Alexa from SmartThings.
Oh well. Maybe someday we will have ‘Alexa Speaks’ again.
It’s not likely on the SmartThings platform. It was shut down before because it generated too much traffic.
But as @Bloodtick_Jones mentioned, it’s still available on the hubitat platform so you can use one of the 2 mentioned integration options, Mira or HubiThings, to tie those into SmartThings if you want to use both platforms together. Obviously that takes some effort and has some dollar cost associated, but there are people doing it.
You can find the integration options listed under “edge services“ on the quick browse lists:
FAQ: Using the quick browse lists without the community wiki
Ah. Thank you for explaining this.
Am I the only one that finds it odd that SmartThings would shut down a popular feature because it generates too much traffic? 
I get it though. Hosting all that traffic is expensive. So why not support a system fewer people have (Sonos) than a system that most smart home people have (Alexa).
Some day in the future, we’ll have smart home hubs that talk to other smart home hubs without going through anyone’s expensive cloud and tying up bandwidth. Someday… someday… someday…
Thanks for everyone’s answer! I really appreciate it. 
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Thanks! That’s a bit beyond me at this point.
I appreciate the feedback though.
They support alexa for the standard smart home integration provided by Alexa. In fact, they were one of the first companies to do so.
Control of an echo device, including making it say specific stuff, is not part of Amazon’s standard SmartHome API. So in this case, I don’t think we can blame Samsung. 
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It appears that the Alexa Skills Kit (ASK) does include Text-To-Speech through the API.
You can send text to an Echo speaker to be read aloud using the Alexa API. This is often referred to as Text-to-Speech (TTS) functionality¹.
The Alexa Skills Kit (ASK) provides a feature called the Alexa.Speaker interface, which includes a Text-to-Speech (TTS) capability¹. You can send a string of text that Alexa will convert to speech and respond to your customers using TTS¹.
In addition, there are services like Voice Monkey³ and Home Assistant² that provide APIs to send TTS announcements to your Alexa devices.
Remember, the implementation details might vary based on the specific use case and the programming language you are using. It’s always a good idea to refer to the official documentation or community forums for the most accurate and up-to-date information.
Source: Conversation with Bing, 4/16/2024
(1) Response APIs for Alexa Development - Alexa Skills Kit Official Site. Response APIs for Alexa Development - Alexa Skills Kit Official Site.
(2) APIs For Alexa and Amazon Echo - Voice Monkey. APIs For Alexa and Amazon Echo - Voice Monkey.
(3) Script to send a text to speech message to alexa. Script to send a text to speech message to alexa - Voice Assistant - Home Assistant Community.
(4) Creating an Alexa Audio Streaming Skill with api.audio. Creating an Alexa Audio Streaming Skill with api.audio | by Matt Lehmann | Medium.
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