New SmartThings Alexa skill (2020)

What are the brand/model numbers of the devices? And are you using custom DTHs or just stock?

This sounds like the typical case where you have duplicated devices that are only visible in https://alexa.amazon.com. Did you check for that?

I agree with @JDRoberts, but for me it’s not just the simulated devices, I’m having the same issue using physical devices, (visonic contact, Aeotec door sensor). For example, as a test, I have an Alexa routine that announces whenever the back door opens…response can vary from about 10 sec, to an hour, to never ever. Again that’s with a plain old door sensor.

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Me too, rarely feedback on a door locking or unlocking either anymore, which used to work fine.

I came onto Smarthings back in May with the V3 hub, so at the time, I had to use the new Alexa skill and using the old one wasn’t an option for me. I was slightly underwhelmed by the duplicate device issue and not being able to select devices, but at least it worked, and I didn’t really know anything different because I never had access to the old skill. If feel since everyone was forced onto it now, it keeps progressively becoming more unreliable, and it can’t handle the load and has fallen apart. The post higher in the thread from @jdroberts here has been exactly what my experience has been with it.

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For anyone having issues getting smartthings integration to get Alexa to speak, If you know webcore, check out voicemonkey.Io. It’s an external service that publishes itself as a doorbell to Alexa. You ‘press’ the doorbell by sending a web request to their server. The virtual doorbell (known as a monkey) can then trigger a routine to do anything. To speak an arbitrary sentence (ie the content of the sentence is sent in the web request) just make the Alexa routine run the voicemonkey skill.

So basically you can run any routine on Alexa circumventing the Alexa integration in smartthings, plus you can get it to say anything you want. You want it to speak from multiple echos? Set up one routine for each echo, triggered by the same monkey.

It’s not echo speaks by any stretch, but it will make a decent substitute while we wait for the lite version of echo speaks OR while we wait for Samsung to fix this issue.

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Interesting… Just got this email from Amazon. I’ve refused to update to the new skill due to the device selection issue. I haven’t been home, but AFAIK the old skill is still working. Hopefully ST fixes the device selection issue before the 21st. Not hopeful, and if they don’t, 7 years with ST, it’s off to Hubitat I go.

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So the wording in the email is a bit ominous. Does it just mean that the old skill stops working on the 21st? Or is it warning us to upgrade before the 21st to avoid losing access to the devices indefinitely? I’m guessing it’s the former?

Former is my guess.

Don’t tell SmartThings. They’ll “fix” it. :frowning:

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I’m still on the old skill, and things seem to have been working fine. Looks like that is going to end soon.

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Community: Reports multiple catastrophic issues
SmartThings: We added support for a new oven!

Do the SmartThings developers even run SmartThings in their own home? Surely not, they clock off from work each day and go home, manually switch on their light and say phew glad i dont have to deal with that mess for another 12 hours.

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I actually asked this question when on the phone with SmartThings support the other day. There was a bit of stuttering and then, “I and a couple others in support use SmartThings in our homes but I have no idea if any of the developers actually use it.”
I then asked how they are dealing with all the issues since they work for the company. Reply was “we understand your frustration and that things aren’t working but all we can do is send it to the developers and wait to hear back.”

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First line support Is now handled by the general Samsung support line, and I expect most of them don’t use smartthings at all. They are just working from Scripts.

The engineers and other employees who post in this forum generally do use SmartThings.

I don’t know if the people who design the app use the Home Automation features or not: the vast majority of app users don’t since it is now required for both Samsung smart appliances and Samsung smart televisions.

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And good luck getting beyond them. I’ve had a ticket open for more than a MONTH to attempt to rectify automations not responding to presence activity and I just get the same idiotic scripted questions and suggestions thrown at me over and over.

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I installed the new skill without removing the old skill first. None of my devices were responsive, and it wouldn’t add any new devices. I removed the old skill, removed and reinstalled the new skill, and deleted all of the devices; there are also no devices listed on alexa.amazon.com. Now it won’t discover any devices. Any suggestions?

Probably futile but I’d try:

  1. Remove the new skill (again)
  2. Wait 5 minutes for cloud to cloud propagation
  3. Check for and remove devices via the website (again)
  4. Wait 5 minutes
  5. Reinstall new skill
  6. Wait 5 minutes
  7. Run discovery

If that falls, call SmartThings support

My Samsung Motion Sensor still does not work with Alexa. I can add the routine by going to the device in Alexa and tap add routine. Alexa detects motion, but it will not run my routine that I have always used to announce that there is motion.

See above. It’s a known problem, smartthings engineering is working on it, no timeline has been announced for solution, There’s nothing that we can do as customers, and until the fix is announced here or in one of the official announcements you can expect performance to continue to be frustratingly erratic. :disappointed_relieved:

New SmartThings Alexa skill (2020) - #792 by JDRoberts

And you can expect jd to make that same reply several more times lol

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