Currently, the only solution if you want to have Alexa as you ‘speaker’ is to pair it via Bluetooth to a device (like a phone or tablet) that is ‘playable’ via SmartThings. If you have a Sonos or some other synth device you can also use an App like big talker (with or without Alexa) to send status messages to these speakers in real time without having to ‘query’ for message.
Unfortunately, Amazon made this decision and Google followed that pattern. My guess is that these ‘smart’ speakers will never do what you are looking for. Ask Alexa is the closest to making this happen with its message queue options, but no developers have access to the tools to make the speaker start speaking in real time.
If you want voice announcements in the near future then look for another device.
My guess is that Google Home will have this sooner than Alexa. It already has Chromecast Audio capabillities so it should already be possible to play an mp3 or other audio clip from a SmartThings app.
Mirroring to GH is the same as playing on Alexa via BT. Neither one allows the voice assistant to wake up without being prompted. And I don’t think that would change any time soon…
You are wrong here. GH is a Chromecast Audio device so any app can connect to it and play supported audio formats on it without any user interaction with GH.
To be on the safe side I tried with LocalCast and it played an mp3 stored on my phone.
CC has an http API so I don’t see why it couldn’t be invoked from a ST app. I’m sure there are APIs to convert text to mp3 so dynamic content could also be played.
I might miss the point. Why would you need Google Assistant for this use case? SmartThings detects a door was opened and plays a message on a speaker. No Bluetooth and no assistant should be needed.
You can get the GH to announce from ST. That doesn’t involve the assistance on it. GH combines two things: the google assistant and basically a chromecast audio.
The dth and smartapps posted earlier rely on the chromecast audio component in the GH speaker. So when ST sends a notification, it’ll interrupt whatever is playing on the GH and play your notification.
Yes you can get the GH speaker to announce notifications, but not the assistant part of it. Basically it’s the same thing, you just cannot ask the assistant to read your notifications or something like this.
You can now “broadcast” with Google Home. From the Google Assistant app you can “broadcast your message”, though I’m not yet certain how we might be able to leverage it from WebCoRE.
I’m using cast-web that @SBDOBRESCU mentioned. Although it requires a node server on a tablet or computer or router or something on your network, it’s works very reliably.
cast audio or video to all google homes, google minis, and chromecasts and chromecast audios! Pretty cool to have tvs as notification speakers if they have chromecasts.
