If you are asking if it is required to use Ask Alexa, the answer is no. Most people have both enabled…one for just direct access to individual lights and the to do mode/routines/macros.
on the cards in alexa app it shows this
does the fact it says ‘smart things’ and not ‘smartthings’ matter?
Having trouble figuring out whether everything is working or not?
Did it report on the hall? If so, it is working 
Seriously, there isn’t a space in my cards…but if you invocation is two words then it will show up like yours. Again, if it works it is almost irrelevant.
Does that help? I hope it is working…
this didnt work,
also invocation I setup is smartthings. It has shown on the cards as this a couple of times but mostly with the space as above
Interesting…and you are saying “smartthings” and not “Smart Things”? I have never seen it do this, but if it keeps it up you may want to simply change the invocation name to Home or something like that…you DO need to make sure the skill is in your Alexa apps.
skill is definitely in alexa app.
Also, how do you say ‘smartthings’ as opposed to ‘smart things’…not being funny just interested in how i’m supposed to differentiate between the two??
That is my question as I have never seen this before…maybe a clear pause between the two words? I DOES work, however, when it does hear smartthings? Or it doesn’t work at all? Even with another invocation word?
getting error Unexpected token < in JSON at position 2
changed invocation word to home and nothing seems to work
tried all these with new invocation and dont get correct responses 
Version-You can get the version number of the various pieces of Ask Alexa
<“Alexa, version of home”> - Notice how the invocation word is at the end.
<“Alexa, ask home about Ask Alexa”>
<“Alexa, ask home about the SmartApp”>
<“Alexa, ask home about versions”>
think i will do a clean install and start afresh, and then see what happens.
Ok…if it never worked it is likely your Oauth and token ID…
I have updated the app to 2.1.5. You will also want to grab the update to the sample utterances. Please note that I will probably not be updating this app for a while until the Google Home is released (and if they give an API for it) or Amazon releases their ‘push’ notifications.
Enjoy!
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For a bit of fun and to make the wife laugh. I was just wondering is the following is possible using Ask Alexa, and if so…how?
Basically I have 2 lights (corner lamp and sofa lamp) and my Amazon Echo is linked up to Spotify.
Basically I want to say the command “Alexa, tell SmartThings to turn on Sexy Time”, and for both lamps to turn off, and Alexa to start playing “Marvin Gaye - Let’s Get It On”. I have CoRE installed if that helps.
Is that possible?! Ha!
Maybe you could create a CoRE piston that would do that and call it sexy time. Then have Alexa run the piston.
Try CoRE> basic piston> askAlexa macro, then go from there.
Think I’m going to struggle. The Echo isn’t available as a music player / speaker.
After clean install, everything working! Just to confirm I also selected Europe Ireland region and English(UK) and all seems to be ok
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Good to hear it…Amazon doesn’t give a list currently of sites that have the Alexa service (that I have seen) but will look again and update the documentation.
With my UK registered Alexa, I too was having an issues with commands executing via voice with the default instructions installing on US East. Reinstalling into Europe/Ireland and using the language as English UK has improved significantly voice commands. there is also a selection for the ARN code, to choose Europe, rather than US
I just wanted to thank Michael for this great app, and the great service he gave as I worked through getting it set up. Awesome support!
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Thanks 