New SmartThings Alexa skill (2020)

Not necessarily. Hubitat, Vera, or Zipato can all support rules of equal complexity to SmartThings. Each, like smartthings itself, has pluses and minuses, so each person has to choose for themselves what the best match is to their own needs and preferences, or even if they want to run more than one.

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My turn again…

My “I’m home scene” fires inconsistently since the update and migration.

The scenario - if my location is away and my virtual “away delay” switch is off, when my z-wave Yale lock is unlocked then the “I’m home” scene is triggered.

When I say “goodbye” the goodbye scene is triggered which includes an “away delay” virtual switch that stays on for 15 minutes. This is to prevent everything from turning on if we forgot something and reenter the house.

I rebuilt this under the new app.

It won’t fire if I’ve been away for a while. It will fire if I say goodbye, physically turn off the away delay in the app, and unlock the door.

It almost seems as if the device monitor is sleeping after a certain time of inactivity.

I can fire the scene manually so I know it’s good.

I’m about to start troubleshooting it, just checking if there is anything known about this.

Thanks!

I don’t know if I’m understanding the logic for the automations.

For location… Is it as a location changes or the state before an input?

I want it to run the I’m home routine, but only if the location is away and the away delay switch is off.

Now when I add location as a condition or precondition, any scenes that set location are unavailable… This is getting ugly.

Ok… So if your scene sets a location, it cannot be triggered I. an automation that is triggered off of location. The location change has to be set in the automation itself. This has to be broken logic in the automation app or o am completely misunderstanding how to use this.

I’m home, and I leave so I run the goodbye routine which in the routine sets the location to away.

When I arrive home and unlock the door, I want it to run the I’m home routine, but only if the preconditions of location state = away and the away delay switch = off.

Got tired of messing with it.

I created virtual switch called I’m home trigger. I used the smartlight smartapp to automatically turn on the switch when the front door unlocks but only if the location is away and the away delay switch is off. This also can trigger the I’m home routine.

My goodbye routine turns the I’m home trigger off and sets the location to away.

In the smartthings automations when the I’m home trigger switch is turned on, it executes the I’m home routine. Edit - I’ve removed this as the smartlight app can trigger scenes too

This works flawlessly. Now to add in all the other activities back in the routines… Yay. :unamused:

Another thing I just remembered - Alexa won’t execute a skill that has a lock action in it. I was fighting with it not importing my goodbye routine and remembered. I removed the kitchen door lock from the scene and it was automatically discovered in Alexa.

The old behavior was it would import it but Alexa would give you an error explaining why it couldn’t run it. Apparently it won’t import at all now and no message as to why.

Update
Since TP-link link kasa is now in ST I added the stuff to my routines. Apparently it’s too many devices as when I deleted some and shifted the responsibility to Alexa, my routines started working better.

Talk about frustrating. I did get a message in ST when trying to run it, but the error just said “not all devices were able to be controlled” nice specificity there…

I probably am not asking this in the right place, but I can’t find a way to post a new problem.

Ever since the new smartthings app came out my alexa routines that use smartthings contact sensors triggers twice. For example, when the front door is opened, smartthings tigers alexa routine to simply announce “Front Door Open”. Alexa plays this twice. I have deleted and reinstalled virtually everything related to this. I was thinking that the old smartthings had been triggering this routine before the new smartthings app, and thought possibly both the old and new were triggering alexa routines. so, I waited until Smartthings eliminated the old app. The problem remains. I bought a Sonos speaker to handle voice stuff as Alexa voice routines were just broken by Smartthings not working well with it. But the wife does not like it, and there is only one speaker. I have echo devices all over the house and can select which ones announce what.

Any help on this? I have tried creating new routines that do same type of things, and all announce twice.

You don’t happen to have it set up in both the Classic App and the new app perchance?

I thought that too. But the front door routine was created after the crossover to the new app. I did the change over 2 months ago. I still think ST has the old stuff running parallel to the new. I used the new apps automated change over stuff to upgrade to the new app.

Check to make sure your device’s aren’t duplicated in Alexa.

Did that way back, but thanks

Is the old Alexa groovy smartapp still installed?

Im not sure what that is. But there is nothing Alexa under the ST SmartApps

I am having a terrible time with my new Samsung Q 70 T. Alexa will not turn on the TV, nor will she open applications such as Netflix or prime video. She does not recognize any installed applications like sling or spectrum TV. I have contacted Samsung and smart things and have received no solution. I contacted Alexa support to make sure it was nothing on their end and they said SmartThings is responsible for enabling the commands and Alexa is only the middle person. Alexa keeps saying that we don’t have any enabled video skills when we ask her to perform simple commands such as opening Netflix. The TV actually turned on one time when we asked Alexa to turn it on and I was surprised.

We have the smart things app and Alexa installed properly, the TV is named TV, we have enabled everything we need to. It seems SmartThings it’s just not reliable. Is there any fix or update coming? It’s disappointing to not be able to utilize the intuitive features of the television. Currently we are going to take this television back and purchase a different Manufacture since the smart things and Alexa was a huge deal to us.

Edit: We have had some luck saying, “Alexa open Netflix or prime video on Samsung TV”. But we have to see it specifically like that or it will not open.

Was that enabled in the skill? I have a 2019 Q70 and have never tried it. @Lars can you open specific apps on Samsung TVs via Alexa?

Jimmy, She will tell me I don’t have any enabled video skills when I try to open Netflix or prime or spectrum TV or sling. It was not an enabled video skill. She’s done it a few times when we say specifically “Alexa open next Netfix on samsung TV”.

Sling, spectrum tv, and Netflix are not options when we go to video skills on the Alexa app. It’s my understanding that Alexa/Smart things is supposed to be able to open these without enabling a video skill as they are basic commands? Or am I incorrect

The regular SmartThings skill does not yet support app launch. However, I am not familiar with the capabilities of the built in Alexa like for the Q70T.

Thank you Lars, do you have any information on getting Alexa to turn on the TV? She’s currently responds to the command and says “ok” yet the TV does not turn on. She has once on. Fluke, I was very surprised but it’s only happened once.

In regards to launching apps not being a SmartThings skill, The TV has launched apps by using the specific phrase “Alexa play Netflix on Samsung TV” as well as prime video. But it was only a few times.

Also when we are using an app such as Netflix, is she supposed to be able to pause or resume the show or search for a show once we have the app open?

For years I have used this little device to control all my smart TV’s. It is one amazing piece of kit. Just say " Alexa, turn TV on", mute, change channel, raise/lower volume, and on and on. https://www.remotsy.com/

ah, I forgot the newer models have Alexa built in. I’m stuck with Bixby :frowning:

@Brandon3 do you have your TV connected via Ethernet or Wifi?

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We are connected via Wi-Fi, it’s a stable connection, and we made sure to check that. It’s a great TV, however the Alexa app is a huge deal to us and we want to be able to utilize voice commands for opening applications, turning on the TV, and in application use. As I mentioned, she has opened Netflix and Amazon prime using specific language, so I think this TV is capable of doing it, I just don’t know if there’s a SmartThings issue or not.

This whole migration from old (better) and new (terrible) is just a nightmare to me. This platform became worse and worse overtime as they migrate. I lost TV control at some point. Hey I have only 3 year old Samsung Flagship QLED 4K TV. It used to work but not anymore. Now I have duplicated Hue bulbs and Scenes that I cannot remove. There are 50+ of them and I’m tired to disable them one-by-one. I’m done! I clearly need a different migration, moving things over to Hubitat. I’ll have to rewrite some of my custom drivers, but for now I can use Hubitat HubConnect to see all the SmartThings devices. I then deleted the SmartThings skill completely from Alexa. Hubitat’s Alexa skill allows me to exclude which device is visible to Alexa, including those still connected to SmartThings. Ironically, the SmartThings is now the stupidest part of my smart home. I’m sure it will get worse, it’s always the case for the software products from Samsung. By the time it becomes completely useless, I’ll have everything migrated over to Hubitat. The StupidThings hub will RIP and I have one less thing to worry. Sigh…we once had a good time…

You clearly have something screwed up.

  1. Goto the Classic App and make sure that the Alexa App is uninstalled.

  2. Goto the New App and uninstall the Alexa App.

  3. Goto IDE and makes the Alexa App is not there.

  4. Goto alexa.amazon.com and remove all devices. (there is a bulk remove option)

  5. Make a sandwich and chill for about 30 minutes.

  6. Go back to step 4 and make sure no devices are being repopulated…

  7. Install the Alexa App in the New App

  8. Go back to step 4 and make sure there are no duplicates.

  9. If duplicates exist, then use a different naming method for things brought in by ST and others that are direct integrations.

  10. Goto the Alexa App then Settings then TV and Video and link your TV to an Alexa device.

For my TV, the skill was Vizio Smart Cast.

Good luck!