Is there anyway to setup a simple speech announcement without using a virtual switch. I presently use the virtual switch but I thought i read somewhere there is another way with the recent changes.
Thanks
Unfortunately not
Ok thanks. Was hoping something changed but guess not yet.
Nope… i wish it had as well…
That’s all on the Amazon side, so it’s based on the options they offer. You can have trigger conditions based on the time of day, on a virtual sensor, on a physical sensor, on a flic button…
You could even add a switchbot to a flic button and then automate when the Switchbot pushes the button and do it that way. (I’m not saying you should, just that you can. 
)
https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=202200080
I use the Alexa app for door open/close, but I am running to other automations that I setup in smartthings & was hoping to get away from virtual switches. I’m starting to things from smartighting now that its local plus eventually smartlighting will be gone.
They have added some more options, so depends on your use case. You can now use a door lock or unlocking or unlocking as a trigger, I think that’s the most recent production change. But it won’t know what the user code was if you’re just using the native Alexa options.
You can use location based on your phone if it’s running the Alexa app.
And if you are offered the sound detection beta, that can trigger based on a baby crying or dogs barking. So if you have something else that can trigger a dog barking sound, you could use that. 
So there have been some changes in the last six months or so, but I don’t know if they would be useful to you.
I might be able to use the door unlocking. I do an update with alexa for my daughters nurses when they come at night. I might try that. Would that be considered a local automation?
Right now, Alexa routines aren’t local. They require the Amazon cloud. So I’m not quite sure what you’re asking…
I was talking about the smartthings side. I do the automations in smartthings with a virtual switch to trigger alexa to talk.
If you use the lock or unlock as the trigger in the Amazon routine, SmartThings doesn’t use an automation. It’s the same as using a physical sensor. That might not be what you want because it doesn’t give you The same level of logic complexity, but it’s useful for some situations.