heffneil said:
I will tell you if there is one thing I really wish I had in Haiku Helper that I don't today it would be the ability to make announcements via Amazon Echo. I don't think the amazon platform is setup to do announcements yet but if there was an easy way to push "Back Door" out of my Amazon devices that would be awesome. Right now I use a different series of beeps for different things and its quite annoying. Almost like having to learn morse code and I am the only one in the family who knows what they all mean which means they are pretty worthless. I have alerts for Trash Night, Or Kids Ac Problem. End Gate, Main Gate Open. They need to be quick. I had this setup with the Russound system and it kinda sucked. It was loud, obnoxious and very slow.... Just a future enhancement idea.
Nice! Right now I'm heavily invested/focused on Apple's capabilities -- Myro:Home Helper with HomeKit bridging is amazing. The best part is my HAI system is now HomeKit meaning, Siri, home pods, appletv, watch all can control my HAI system. I can just summon Siri to do things on my HAI system, even simply ask her status about units, security, thermos, etc.
That said, the Myro:Home iOS app is, in my opinion still a better interface to control all the deeper details of my HAI system.
As for Amazon ecosystem, I'm already using Echo with HomeSeer/HAI plugin, and it's pretty solid and fairly inexpensive setup if you want Echo/Alexia integration.
I just don't like to use it because the extra "trigger" word of "homeseer", "Alexa, tell homeseer to turn on the bedroom lights" makes it cumbersome.
With Siri, it's just the name of the device... much more natural and easier for the wife, kids and inlaws/guests that are not as savvy to conversationally interact with the system.
Also, having consistency, especially around voice control is important, as we're and Apple ecosystem home, asking Siri to do things in the car, on the go and in the home makes thing very consistent and usably.
With iOS 12 and Siri shortcuts HomeKit will become even more powerful and I believe having our HAI system exposed to that will make our homes even that much more relevant.