Alexa Contact Sensor vs Switch

I vaguely remember something about Alexa handling contact sensors differently than switches. Is that true?

I have a rule that opens and closes a virtual contact sensor, and that virtual contact sensor is referenced in an Alexa routine to make an announcement.

The following rule works fine using a virtual contact sensor (Garage Door Open-Stays-Echo), but could I use a virtual switch instead of a virtual contact sensor?

If you go into your Alexa routines and click on “When this happens”, switches do not show up. So the answer is you can not use switches.

But if you use a driver like this one, you can set it as a switch in HE and it can appear as a contact sensor to Alexa.

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I wrote something a while back - I link presence, contact and switch states specifically for my needs.

it includes toggle feature, auto on, auto close as well. It should be found in HPM

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