New Harmony Echo Skills! Turn up/down volume, etc

Haven’t tried it yet, but setting it up now.

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The addition of volume adjustments and play/pause is good but the ability to control activities was already there and easier without having to say ‘tell harmony to…’

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I left the old skill in use, but the added volume control & individual device contol is a big win! I was forced to upgrade the firmware on my harmony hub prior or the skill working, though.

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Needs multi hub support now.

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I did the same.

So it’s a separate skill? Not wrapped into current integration? That’s no good. I already have volume up and down using harmony activity and core together.

Just added this new skill… Nice… Now I can turn up/down the volume and play/pause the TV when the phone rings!

Now Why did they forget, “Alexa, Tell Harmony to Pause the TV”?

I like it but still some room for improvement. I usually watch Netflix on my ps3 ( sometimes in Xfinity x1 box,fire stick ) so my Harmony Netflix activity triggers it that way . I’d like it if recognizing I’m streaming Netflix on the ps3 so i could tell Alexa to pause and it would pause it on the ps3 like it can on the cable box. Still all in all its an improvement and kudos for following through with it as promised.

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I think they had to do it this way because of the reserved words. If you just tell echo “echo, turn up the volume” it’s going to turn up its own volume. So there probably just wasn’t any good way to use the version that doesn’t require “echo, tell Harmony to …” for the commands that overlap with The echo – as – a – speaker commands.

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Yeah, didn’t think about that, I had to look for words that would work for the Harmony Activity I created. I think I ended up with louder and softer or louder and quieter?

I haven’t had it installed / setup long enough to have it memorized yet. Too many commands to remember them all.

And really not much more to say between

“Alexa tell harmony to turn volume down”

and

“Alexa turn on Softer” (hope that was what I set up when I tested it)

I’ll have to play some during the couple days I have off over the holidays and see what everyone likes better.

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Man, I love this feature. :sunglasses: Soooooo much better than the old Harmony activities method for volume and pause control. I’m fine with saying “Alexa, tell Harmony…”

Best Buy has a deal right now for just the Dot and the Harmony Hub (no Button remote) for $130 and I know several people who are quads getting this now that there’s volume control. :sunglasses:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/amazon-echo-dot-black-logitech-harmony-home-hub-package/9999275500050011.p?skuId=9999275500050011

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Anyone figure out how to unmute the tv yet? I got mute working, but not reverse…

It’s A button equivalent. Just say “Echo, tell Harmony to mute” a second time and it toggles that button and restores the sound. :sunglasses:

Thanks! That worked!

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Mine does that

It should pause if the harmony activity supports the pause button. But you just say “echo, tell Harmony to pause” and if the regular pause button works in the current activity, that should work.

This doesn’t turn on automatically. There is a new Alexa skill that you have to add (looks like the old harmony skill but now a red circle). Logitech advises using both skills. Here’s their web page that describes it all and lists the additional functions added by the new skill…
https://support.myharmony.com/en-us/harmony-experience-with-amazon-alexa

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You can also tell Harmony to increase/decrease volume to toggle off the mute.

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Nice that we have access to volume options now, but this is going to be confusing for your average user, starting from the lack of clear info in the skill names…

Original: “Harmony — Optimized for Smart Home” (blue icon)
New: “Harmony” (red icon)

Yeah, that’s clear. :frowning:

I was laughing outside (and crying inside) last night as my wife tried to use the new volume skill after I carefully explained the new skill to her. Of course she promptly forgot the new “ask Harmony” part. After several failures she ended turning to me and used a traditional “Smart Home” command:

“Will you stop laughing and turn down the stupid TV!” :slight_smile:

Actually, I’d like to be able to use the new Harmony volume controls w/Google Home. I have an Echo, but just prefer Google Home as my “design center” for my smart home moving forward. Hoping that Logitech or SmartThings community will provide that soon.

When I’m watching the news I have the TV volume at 11. For my other shows I bump the volume up to 17. When I tell this new feature turn up the volume it bumps the volume up to 21 (too loud). I realize these volume numbers probable don’t relate to all the different brands of TV’s out there.

Is there anyway to adjust how much it changes the volume? :ear:

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