I have tried both virtual contact and motion sensors and can’t get Alexa Routines to fire. My real contact and motion sensors work just fine. I’d really like to get this working!
Did you read the wiki article?
Many people find they need to do all seven steps in the “activating your device” section before the virtual sensors are recognized.
The thingsthataresmart.wiki link brings up a ‘parking’ page.
when doing routine, anyway to select more than just one echo dot?
Yes, if you are in the US you use the messaging option in the Alexa routine. But I don’t know if that’s available in any other region yet.
See the following discussion for details:
thanks, i just tried it. that works only after the initial routine announcement finish, which is a delay. I thought it could be simultaneous but i guess better than nothing
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You should be able to remove the announcement and just use the messaging option to go to all devices simultaneously. I can’t confirm how synchronized they are though, since my Echos are on different floors and I can’t hear them all from any one place.
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thanks, it work simultaneously.
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I’m really confused, having gone through this and several other similar topics. I’m attempting to have Alexa announce when one of the Smartthings door sensors opens. The Smartthings skill is enabled on the Alexa app, and the door sensors show up in the device list on the Alexa app.
I then created a routine in Alexa to announce when the “test sensor has opened.” Alexa shows it is connected to the Smartthings skill, it recognizes when the sensor is opened, and is verified that the routine is enabled.
But there is no audio announcement. I can manually play the announcement from within the routine, and it plays successfully through the designated Echo device, but it will not play from the triggered sensor.
I’m obviously missing something but am unable to shift through and would greatly appreciate some simplified guidance. Thank you!
Many people have found that they have to log out of the app and log back in to get it to work.
follow these numbered steps exactly in that specific order and see if it fixes the problem. Don’t worry that steps one and two are missing, they are for if you are using a virtual device. 
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use the Alexa app to disable the smartthings skill.
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log out of the Alexa app.
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log back into the Alexa app.
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re-enable the SmartThings skill.
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ask Alexa to discover new devices
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Thank you!!! This is brilliant, and I not-so-brilliantly missed this among the posts that I thought I had read through so carefully.
Cheers!
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I’m beginning to transition my simpler routines to Alexa.
If dining room motion sensor gets motion between 11p and 5am, turn on Hue Midnight Snack scene in Kitchen.
Etc.
Given how established Alexa has become, and how ‘transitional’ ST seems to be now, it just makes sense.
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Through an Echo Hub or via the ST/Alexa integration?
For the moment, via ST integration. I know, that’s really no better…
But I want them all in-place anyway, so that should ST suddenly disappear all I need do is include the devices in the Echo Hub and duplicate the existing integrations.
I’m not sure if there is a better thread here or elsewhere (since this is really nothing to do with ST but rather Amazon) but I wanted to see if anyone had any luck getting Alexa to show a live camera feed on the Echo screen upon a ST device trigger? I can make announcements, turn on and off devices and so on but for the cameras not so much - just the option to turn on a camera which doesn’t do anything on the device screen. I am thinking this is just a limitation of the Alexa Routines but wanted to check to see if anyone else found a way around this.
Even Ring, which Amazon has bought, won’t provide alerts or pull up the camera on a Echo device or show-mode Fire tablet when the doorbell is rung without a bunch of workarounds, I think requiring Fully and AutomateIt. If you explore the recommendations people have posted for that (ActionTiles forum is a good place to go since the Fire tablet is popular as a dashboard), you might be able to come up with a way to trigger the same routine using your ST devices, but it’s going to be a challenge to say the least.
It’s stupid, but the least-complicated way to go would be to put a Dot next to your Echo device and have the ST device trigger an announcement of “Alexa, show me the [camera name]”…I don’t know if there are rules that prevent one Echo from triggering another but now I’m going to try this with my Echo and Fire that are in the same room.
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One of the issues I’ve found after looking in the IDE is that when you create a new Alexa Simulated Switch using the custom DTH it is not automatically included in the Amazon Alexa SmartApp (see screenshot below showing where it is listed):
Even though the switch can be seen in the Alexa App it won’t respond in routines, at first I disabled/unlinked the SmartThings Skill, but an easier way was to go into the SmartThings App - Automation - Amazon Alexa - Toggle ‘all devices’ - Next - then Save.
Your switch should now work in Routines.
My reticence at disabling the Skill in the Alexa app was down to potentially all my 100+ ‘Things’ in the Devices section on the Alexa app disappearing from the Rooms and Groups I had set up (needing to be manually re-added), hopefully this isn’t the case!
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Thank you for this great information!