Lost Alexa Voice ST Announcements

SmartApps & Automations
1

(Apologize if post is in the wrong sub-forum)
Hello… Novice user of ST here. From what I have read in the past, I know there has been issues with getting the whole Alexa speaks stuff working. End of last year I got it to work and everything seemed to work well for the duration… However the other day, the functionality just stopped. My primary use case was when a door opened (ST multipurpose sensor contact open), Alexa would say “XXX door open”. For some reason, it just stopped. I gave it a few days in case there was an issue on the backend, still out of service. Did something change recently? Do I need to install/uninstall anything to get this working again. Below is what I have:

  • ST Hub (v2 000.038.00010) (shows devices connected to it)
  • Alexa account still linked in ST
  • ST skill still enabled in Alexa app
  • I am using the new ST app on iOS

Not sure what I am missing, hoping someone from the community can provide me some guidance. Thank you!

2

Welcome! I’m sure that’s very frustrating. :disappointed_relieved:

For the past few days, “event processing” has been messed up for some people, causing events to be reported late or not at all. That could have caused the issue you’ve seen. It’s supposed to be fixing itself, but it’s been slow for some people. You can read more about that in the following thread.

Device events and history disappeared in graph.api and groovy smartApp, then slowly came back. Mesh Maintenance or publishing conflict between old groovy smartapp and newer API smartapp? (Aug 2021)

You should report the issue to support, but if that’s it, there won’t be anything you as an individual customer can do until it’s fixed. :thinking:

That said, let’s make sure we’re all talking about the same thing.

I’m not aware of any official or unofficial feature called “Alexa Speaks.”

There was a very popular community-created smartapp called “Echo Speaks,” but it was discontinued last year and I don’t believe there’s any configuration where it currently works. There was a similar community created smartapp called EchoSistant, but I believe it was also discontinued.

There is a third party Alexa skill called “Voice Monkey” which some community members use.

There is an official Alexa Routines feature in Amazon’s Alexa app which normally works quite well. It relies on the official SmartThings Alexa Skill, though, which itself has had quite a few issues (and much forum discussion) since the second generation was introduced.

There may be other ways to have a SmartThings sensor trigger an Alexa
Announcement as well, I’m not up to date on everything.

Anyway, can you post a screenshot of the screen where the rule is defined? That would help us know if there might be anything else causing the issue.

3

@JDRoberts thank you for correcting me. The smartapp I had is “Echo Speaks” and I was using the Alexa routine in Alexa app. I am curious now because it has been working recently, not sure why if it was discontinued. Maybe I was covering too many bases.

Anyways, I want to get on the right path to success with the announcements from Alexa (triggered by my multipurpose sensor). Do you have a recommended path with higher success rate? Should I try the “Voice Monkey”? Or stick with the Alexa Routines feature and wait till it stabilizes?

Thank you for the help.

1 Like
4

If all you want is an echo announcement when the physical sensor opens, I would just use the official Alexa routine. It works well for that as long as ST isn’t having issues.:disappointed_relieved:

Here’s the thread discussing Voice Monkey if you want to learn more about that.

Alexa Voicemonkey Skill

Note though that anything relying on Webcore or any other groovy code will have to be rewritten later this year when the groovy cloud goes away. So the simplest option using just an Alexa routine may be the best place to invest your time right now if it meets your needs.

5

Agreed. My needs are simple so I will stick with the official Alexa routine(s). It appears mine is still not working as of 15 minutes ago but will monitor over the next couple of days and report back.

Thank you @JDRoberts for help!

1 Like
6

You can try the following sequence just to resynch everything.

  1. disable ST skill in the Alexa app
  2. log out of Alexa app
  3. log back into Alexa app
  4. re-enable ST skill

Sometimes that helps, sometimes it doesn’t.

7

Thank you. After a lot of re-syncing and a couple of app re-installs. It appears to be working… Maybe a little user error sprinkled in there

Thank you for the help @JDRoberts

1 Like
8

Or maybe just coincidental timing, several people reported in the forum today that event processing which had been broken was now working again today. :sunglasses: