What can Alexa do for you?

A lot of us are using Alexa in our homes, and we all know there are some major gaps with Alexa. What would you, as the user, like bee able to do with your Alexa and Home Automation systems?

1 Like

***Reserving this post to categorize the answers.

Missing features that people want…

  • tones instead of words for action acknowledgment
  • room location
  • voice recognition
  • compound commands
  • control nst products in UK
  • alarm clocks

I’d like to be able to have Alexa respond with out having to “say OK” I’d like an upscale tone for yes/on and a downscale tone for no/off.

2 Likes

How about a distinct tone for successfully carrying out your command and a different tone if it didn’t, or if there was an error…

2 Likes

I use it as an alarm clock. :wink:

2 Likes

In the UK, Alexa can’t control Nest hot water. I’d like to be able to tell Alexa to boost the hot water for 1,2,3 hours etc

Also in the UK Alexa can’t control Broadlink Pro without Android workarounds.

1 Like

Allow Alexa to turn on routines that modify the Smart Home Monitor. If people are worried about disarming it, just allow the ones that turn on ARMED (AWAY) and ARMED (HOME).

My fantasy is voice identification. When I say “alexa, add X event to my calendar” it knows this is me talking and adds it to my calendar - if my wife says “Alexa, add Y event to my calendar” it knows by her voice to add the event to her calendar.

If either of us say “Alexa, unlock the front door” it does so… but if a visitor makes the same command, it does not do it.

That, to me, is the next major step for this system. Then we begin to get to true smart home territory.

After that I’d like it to know your lists, so that if I tell it to add milk to the shopping list it sees it there already and does not add it again.

4 Likes

Along the same lines. I would like Alexa, at least, to know where the command is coming from. If I say turn the lights off, or the tv on… It will know which room I am in …

4 Likes

I’d like to be able to walk into a room and say Alexa, turn on the lights… And she knows exactly what I mean.

And this…

Alexa, turn off the kitchen lights and turn on the ceiling fan in the living room

2 Likes

Can either Ask Alexa or Echosistant return history queries? I.e “how long has X been closed?”, “when was X closed last?” Etc

1 Like

[quote=“SBDOBRESCU, post:11, topic:97838, full:true”]
Along the same lines. I would like Alexa, at least, to know where the command is coming from. If I say turn the lights off, or the tv on… It will know which room I am in …[/quote]
That’s a long way off. Think of it this way: ST doesn’t know “the window”. It knows “window 1” or “West bedroom front window”… no way Alexa will get beyond the same requirement for a unique identifier for at least a few years.

That said, Alexa does know what room a command comes from. So it might be possible to do some custom programming to get there eventually.

1 Like

Yes, both apps can do this.

This is something a lot of people have mentioned in the past… I would love to see this feature as well.

1 Like

That’s already achievable with Alexa and ST. Create alias’s in Alexa for the commands. I frequently use “turn off the lights”, “turn everything off” etc. :slight_smile:

Yeah, but you can only say that for one room.

I want to be able to say, “Alexa, turn up the fan in here” from any room in the house and she know exactly which fan I mean.

Gotcha!
Yep, that’s not do-able yet :frowning:

My short list:

  1. Allow room by room control.
  2. Grouped commands (“Alexa, do this AND do that”).
  3. Allow for commands for multiple Harmony Hubs (or other hub type devices). (“Alexa, turn up the volume in the bedroom and the living room”) (Prerequisite is #2, of course).
  4. TRUE smart speaker support (announcements of events and such).

:slight_smile:

2 Likes

Would making her say “beep” count?

I’m interested in your long list as well