Teach Alexa new tricks

So I am planning on teaching Alexa new tricks this weekend. She answers to commands to control lights, thermostats and doors. Thanks to @MichaelS she now tells me which lights are on and not. Was wondering what others have taught Alexa to do. What’s your favorite trick she does?

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Can you point me to this app? Thanks

Open and Close Blinds/Shades…I use it every day!

There you go…

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Thanks Bobby!

My favorite is a virtual switch named “Foward”… i say “echo turn on Forward” and it skips to the next song playing on Kodi.

I just loaded up @MichaelS Ask Alexa and right now she is still teaching me how she wants to be talked to… just like a lady. :grin:
Not really a new trick or anything special but the most used integration so far with SmartThings has been using Alexa to trigger routines. I have a wall mounted tablet running bluetooth over to Alexa so using VLC Thing I get announcements from SmartAlarm. My “Barking Dogs” alarm is a great conversation starter on my SmartThings system.

Glad you are enjoying it…Let me know if you run into any phrases that she doesn’t like that should ‘logically’ work but don’t and I will add them to the utterance files so everyone can enjoy them…

Alexa can unlock my front door…when I say a goofy phrase like “Alexa, ask home if the cat is watching the goldfish”, and Alexa responds, “The cover is off, the cat can get a closer look now.” (that’s not my real phrase…but you get the idea)

I normally do that from the car’s Amazon Dot. There’s none of that real or imagined fear that someone will yell into your house “Alexa open the front door” without the neighbors noticing someone is outside screaming…because that won’t work anyway. :wink:

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That’s the biggest part of my project…How to make Alexa understand me better. I don’t want me to memorize phrases, I want her to “memorize” them

What do you mean by THAT…was just thinking how can I put Alexa in my car :slight_smile:

I was using the 2nd Gen Fire TV (with the remote and without the video)…but now that the Dot came out it’s even cooler. You don’t have to push a button to talk. I pair the Dot’s Bluetooth out with my cars Bluetooth…you know, like you would with a cell phone. And the Dot uses the WiFi hot spot I keep in the arm-rest to talk to the internet.

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A comprehensive set of utterances will help. Different orders of subject, verb, adverb, with and without keywords like set, turn, the, my, to, etc.

Also, removing anything from your slots that you’re not using will improve accuracy and speed.

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That’s cool and how do you power it? Oh crap, it does plug into the usb port doesn’t it?

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Yea…usb. The Echo has a big audio amp and requires more power…but the Dot just has a tiny little speaker so it works fine on USB.

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Sweeeeettttt! Brilliant…That was easy. I literally thought about how cool would be to put Alexa in the car on hands free (not roger) exactly 53 minutes ago. I love this community!

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This is really cool. It’s probably light enough to tie one to my dog’s collar :grinning:

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Ha…Makes me think of those old cartoons with a St. Bernard and the little Barrel under his collar. You could also make him a vest with the dot/volume control on top, a battery and speakers on each side :wink:

The only harder part is to teach your dog to say Alexa. Alternatively you can name your dog Alexa, can you imagine the look on your neighbors face when you yell at your dog Alexa open the garage door and it does?

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OMG…that’s pretty darn funny Bobby!