IFTTT or how to integrate with home assistant

[IKROWNI]

ok cool thanks again! 

[nime5ter]

cheers

[nime5ter]

@IKROWNI -- out of curiosity, have you ever used IFTTT's Amazon Alexa service?

https://ifttt.com/amazon_alexa

I'm just curious what it actually accomplishes. The feature is only available in the U.S., so I can't read the documentation for it.

[wannaspeed]

@IKROWNI -- out of curiosity, have you ever used IFTTT's Amazon Alexa service?

https://ifttt.com/amazon_alexa

I'm just curious what it actually accomplishes. The feature is only available in the U.S., so I can't read the documentation for it.

I know this was directed to IKROWNI, but I have used the Alexa IFTTT. It definitely has some limitations.  From what I have seen it only works one way. You tell Alexa the "IF" part and choose a service to "Then that". For example I have 2 applets that work together, one raises my phone's volume to 100% the other has IFTTT call my phone. So I say "Alexa, Trigger find my phone" She sends the command to IFTTT it raises the volume and calls me.

You can also have Alexa send a file to dropbox and then have VC watch that folder to issue a command for you. But I find these type of commands a bit on the slow side.

The Alexa phrase command is probably the most useful, there are others like if an item is added to my Alexa to do list, or an item is added or removed from my shopping cart, but I think they aren't as useful.

Unfortunately Alexa has no way to accept commands from other services. So you couldn't send Alexa an sms to turn off the lights or play song/movie x. However I found a workaround using Roger from the phone to send commands to Alexa, but this is not using IFTTT. Hope that helps give you an idea of some of Alexa and IFTTT's capabilities.

[nime5ter]

@wannaspeed -- thanks for the explanation, much appreciated. Happy to have folks to chime in in any thread if there's an unanswered question that you can contribute to.

I asked IKROWNI because he had been actively seeking help with his Alexa stuff at the time, so I thought he would be subscribed to that thread.

By the way, "Alexa" is the kind of unique multisyllabic prefix that is likely to work well as a prefix or even as "start listening" phrase. I'm pretty sure that's why Amazon selected it.

One of our users has been using "Alexander" for years. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM_J-3XQJRI

See also: http://voxcommando.com/forum/index.php?topic=1812

[nime5ter]

The whole reason for this is because as far as i know vox isnt compatible with the echo dot so i am using home assistant so that i can give alexa commands to turn various things on/off.

IKROWNI--in case you haven't been following the other thread, Dave has great news for those of you with access to Amazon Echo and Dot (which are not sold in Canada).

Dave has been experimenting with his Dot in Germany. He has just made a nice video that demonstrates using a custom skill that he created to communicate directly between the Dot and Vox (using VC's TCP web server--no other software required).

  Let us all bow in gratitude to Dave, who has put in the time to open up a world of possibilities. 

http://voxcommando.com/forum/index.php?topic=2672.msg22987#msg22987

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDYmbSly4mI

[Dave]

The instruction to install an "EchoToVC"-Skill are now online:

http://voxcommando.com/forum/index.php?topic=2682.0

[IKROWNI]

Now if only amazon would open up push notifications.