Haiku Using Amazon Alexa devices (Echo, Dot, Tap, etc.) with HAI

He wants to make the word computer. We use amazon because my daughters name is Alexis. Problem is there are a lot of words that sound like amazon and it's always on the tv. Echo is probably the best choice. What I wish the Alexa did is announce zones open and ale rats from the Omni. In other words the opposite relationship where the Omni talks to it.
 
heffneil said:
He wants to make the word computer. We use amazon because my daughters name is Alexis. Problem is there are a lot of words that sound like amazon and it's always on the tv. Echo is probably the best choice. What I wish the Alexa did is announce zones open and ale rats from the Omni. In other words the opposite relationship where the Omni talks to it.
 
There are some work arounds to get Alexa to make announcements.  I've also seen postings in the Amazon forums and other places where they are considering adding the feature to do direct TTS for announcements.  Seems it is one of the most asked for features, but their designers haven't wanted to implement it because they don't want Alexa to become intrusive or annoying.  I would definitely use it for announcements.
 
If you have a link to the workarounds please let me know so I can try it out and see if I can cook up something cool.
 
Thanks!
 
Neil
 
JonW said:
 
You can google "Alexa push notifications".
 
Here's one of the threads from the dev forums:  https://forums.developer.amazon.com/questions/40799/workaround-for-push-notifications.html
Ill check it out. Problem is I don't run ubuntu so it will be difficult perhaps to port it over but one can play and try. I wish amazon gave us some of this ability natively. I also wonder if you have many echos how that works. I'd prefer not to push notifications in my kids rooms after 8 pm :)
 
heffneil said:
Ill check it out. Problem is I don't run ubuntu so it will be difficult perhaps to port it over but one can play and try. I wish amazon gave us some of this ability natively. I also wonder if you have many echos how that works. I'd prefer not to push notifications in my kids rooms after 8 pm :)
 
The multi-echo issue is one of the problems.  To get around it, you need to enroll each one in a different dev account and have their lambda function act accordingly to the echo assigned to it.
 
Yes I noticed that in what he said in his issues.  What a PITA so I hope amazon gets this to be more native and work better.  I'll play with this and report what I find.
 
See I don't really want to use bluetooth because my computer isn't close to my Alexa - i have to review this more to understand how it is working.  
 
Hey guys I just noticed after checking that BWSystems is up to like 4.3.1 of their bridge software! I'm running 3.2.1 which seems ancient now! What I don't love about my setup is using scenes.  I would love to be able to say Amazon Turn Scene C on in the Family Room.  I thought about creating devices but what a PITA and amazon says there are multiple rooms with that name....
 
Anyone upgrade and see any benefit?  Otherwise everything is running super here.
 
Thanks!
 
heffneil said:
Hey all this looks super interesting:
 
https://developer.amazon.com/blogs/alexa/post/8cc45487-d5fb-413b-b6c7-eeea4794d10c/amazon-announces-notifications-for-alexa-feature-is-coming-soon-sign-up-to-stay-tuned
 
That will be nice because finally we can get out Echo's to say "Front Door Open" and not be crappy beeps or use the Russound / Audio board which isn't natural like speaking.
Sounds like you still have to ask:  "Alexa, what are my notifications?"  Correct?
 
I didn't get that impression but perhaps I misunderstood?  Whats the difference of asking Alexa for a skill answer (what you have today) vs it pushing un-asked for notifications?
 
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