How come that the SmartThings skill is not available in Amazon Alexa? According to the product description at ‘Voice assistant & Music streaming’ i should be able to connect my newly bought HW-S61D soundbar to Alexa. But Alexa does not have the Smartthings skill available for me to add as a skill in the Alexa app! For an expensive soundbar like this, and also because it is described in the product description, i bought this soundbar! Did i just waste my money for this soundbar?!
Have you tried starting from the SmartThings end? The Voice assistant icon on the Menu tab of the SmartThings app would be my starting point.
I also understand that the device details page for certain installed soundbars used to have an Alexa settings menu too, and that could also be a starting point. My soundbar is far too old and low end for me to have encountered that though.
The only voice assistant that is listed in the SmartThings app is the Google voice assistant.
To be able to use the devices in Amazon Alexa, that are listed in the SmartThings app, I need to be able to connect to the SmartThings app through the Amazon Alexa app, and enable the SmartThings skill. But that is impossible if the SmartThings skill is not even available in Amazon Alexa.
Ah right. Let’s check the SmartThings catalogue to see which countries the Amazon Alexa voiceApp is supported in …
"countries": [
"AT",
"AU",
"BR",
"CA",
"DE",
"ES",
"FR",
"GB",
"IE",
"IN",
"IT",
"MX",
"NZ",
"US",
"ZZ"
],
So quite a limited range. Sometimes you see different apps for different country groups but I’d be surprised if this is one of them. Then again I don’t really know exactly what this is telling me and how, for example, Alexa in the Netherlands using UK English would be significant.
Both Alexa and Google assistant show as options in my SmartThings app.
Most devices that show in the SmartThings app are exposed and controllable from Alexa (sometimes with reduced control options depending on the device) .
You connect SmartThings to Alexa in the SmartThings app, there is no separate skill.
I only have Google assistant listed. So I wonder why Amazon Alexa is not listed in my SmartThings app, but that it is listed in yours.
I have no idea.
Maybe it’s due to your location, device, or phone os?
It appears in mine in uk with android (s24 u) and iOS iPad
In Alexa I use the English language, and I have a Amazon account in Germany, UK, and US. But somehow the SmartThings app cannot be tricket to set another location to fool it, so that Amazon Alexa voice assistant will be available for me. Very bad service from Samsung to not have this option available in every country where they have Amazon, as it is also available in the Netherlands.
I managed to get Amazon Alexa working with a workaround for my Soundbar HW-S61D/XN.
The steps to follow are
1\. remove the Smartthings app for your mobile device
- change the regional settings on your Samsung account from NL tot IE, ES, AT, DE, GB, or one of the regions that are listed to support Amazon Alexa voice assistant functionality
- Install the SmartThings app again, and add the Soundbar again to the SmartThings app
- Go to the main menu in the SmartThings app (right down corner) after you added the soundbar in the SmartThings app, and select ‘Voice Assistant’. Now you will see the Amazon Alexa voice assistant listed, and you’ll be able to connect the soundbar in the Amazon Alexa app.
Hope this helps other users as well who are not able to add their Samsung smart device because of the region they live in.
The regions that are supported are (with thanks to @orangebucket
“countries”: [
“AT”,
“AU”,
“BR”,
“CA”,
“DE”,
“ES”,
“FR”,
“GB”,
“IE”,
“IN”,
“IT”,
“MX”,
“NZ”,
“US”,
“ZZ”
],
1 Like