My experience was it never worked well that way. You either had to set it up on line first, or go through endless trial and error until you either got frustrated and went to to your computer or phone, or went through several "did you mean this?" I'm Sorry, , Did you Mean that" until you finally found what you were looking for . It was a great idea, but there is way to much stuff, and to many different services offered by Amazon to make it work effectively. We were pretty heavily invested in Amazon as well , but the fire sticks have all been replaced by Roku. The Echo and most of the Dots have been retired except one, and its kept muted most of the time. On the Alexa compatible devices (Ecobee and Yamaha sound bar) Alexa has never been set up. The show is still on-line but almost never used, and the Alexa skill was shut off when "hunches" started turning my bedroom lights on at full brightness at 0330 in the morning (we never have our lights above 40%). Where did she get the Idea we would want bright lights in our bedroom in the middle of the night, and at full brightness to boot? There's a feature that never should have seen the light of day. I don't need Alexa trying to think for me.
I was thinking about trying it again, but we have gotten used to not having the voice control, so I don't think its as necessary as it once was .
I would add if I could find a local voice control with the form factor or echo or a dot , rather than a 1970s, microwave or having to deploy bunch or raspberry pi's (if you can even find them). or making some kind of franked device that looks like some kids electronics shop project. There's gotta be a better way. Maybe I should pick up a few dots on the off chance someone figures out how flash these things to a local option without having parts and wires hanging out.
Maybe instead of trying to develop a new device, some of these companies working on this, should focus on repurposing the devices we have.
Unfortunately this is usually a non starter.
- People hate paying for software changes/updates to hardware they already have. Software is felt that it should be free.
- Fear of getting sued by someone big like Amazon for violating their proprietary technology. The device still says Amazon on it, so companies want to protect that a different company can't just flash it to become a potty mouth... And many other reasons.
This is why we have started to slowly replace our echos with HomePod minis. They have been much more reliable than the dots as far as home automation, and can process ha requests locally.
Can they do local processing without HomeKit? I have no Apple devices other than an ipad.
I have everything connected through a Homebridge setup.
You need a home hub to do things from away from home and any Apple automations. As of iOS 16.2 & Home's new architecture only HomePods and Apple TV 4Ks can function as home hubs. No more iPads.
That article says you only need a HomePod or TV 4K if youāre connecting Thread devices. Otherwise older ATVs and iPads still work.
iOS 16.2 has a new home architecture, eta December(?). I guess it will be optional for the time being. There are things other than Matter compatibility included.
from iPad section:
iPad will not be supported as a home hub on the new, more reliable, and more efficient Home architecture, which will be available later this year as a separate upgrade in the Home app.
So.... Alexa voice control costs amazon a chunk of money yet provides little income?
Sounds a lot like samsing/smartthings. Which had the plug pulled years ago for the same reason.
Edit
Regardless of anyone's views on amazon/ecosystem, nobody should be happy about ground level employees losing their jobs, that's just grim. Save the giddy whoops of joy for the loss of overpaid higher management, who, probably by default, will be fine elsewhere.
/edit
Explains the drying and Amazons intentions
Can you expand on this? If I had one of these speakers and Hubitats new Homekit could these speakers be blocked from the internet at the router and still control basic commands?
The HomePod itself, not at this time for some reason, but an iPhone can process homekit commands locally when a HomePod is is Home hub. I suspect it is coming to the HomePod soon. Let me see if I can find my post about it. EDIT: HomeKit Voice control, Local or Internet access required? - #11 by jtp10181
I recently installed at a client a few Alexa Show(s) and Ring security and Ring Video Doorbell.
The client had seen what was possible at a friend's house, and said "I want that".
Since Amazon owns Ring, they made the integration between Ring Video Doorbell and the Alexa Show a "thing of beauty" (I think it's called Live View).
It will really be too bad if they discontinue that.
100% - my clients have found them easy to use and on my end they are simple to configure, just work and have proven to be reliable. I like to pre-configure everything before the electrician installs... simply by using a hacked computer power cord.
For existing homes I usually recommend at least an 8" show for the kitchen and a Ring doorbell (prefer the pro as it's slimmer) to get them started. After that maybe drop in replacement(s) for certain existing floodlights to provide adequate property coverage.
On a side note clients love the "kitchen timer" function as well.. usually thats the easiest most useful thing to demonstrate outside viewing the Ring video feeds.
Like you said it would be terrible if that functionality went away. It should also be noted that I could at one time view my Arlo cameras as well. Haven't tried in a while though as I do not have a subscription.
Conveniently, my Android started acting up around the time this thread started. I'll be switching to apple soon, and the Alexa's will be replaced with homepods in short order after I get myself and my wife switched.
Per a notification on my Echo tonight, you can now say Alexa turn off my living room lamp at 11:30 pm or turn on my bedroom lamp in 20 minutes. Does not appear they are closing down enhancements to the Alexa app. Don't know if you can say turn on the living room lamp every day at 6pm, but I think you could always set up a routine to do it.
The ability to specify a time or a duration was added either this summer or fall.
Just looked through Alexas routines and wow did it get an upgrade. From when I last looked they must have doubled or quadrupled the abilities. I even see something for Amcrest cameras more than just a non working skill, going to check that when I get home.
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