Alexa Skill Documentation

Hue bridge

Have you linked your Hue Bridge with Alexa at any time. It appears even without a Hue skill Alexa can link up with the Hue Bridge and do basic operations on the bulbs. How to Connect Philips Hue Lights to Amazon Echo

In my previous system I opted to build Alexa Groups and place each bulb in it for voice control, but this time around I'm using the "Group and Scene" app to build groups for reach room/light combination and expose those to Alexa. This has turned out nice because it allows me to use those same groups in automatic scripts. Still a WIP but I think it will fit my needs well.

Yes, my Hue Bridge is connected to my Echos directly as well as through the Hubitat skill.

Interesting. When did they turn that back on? Or are you using "Amazon Echo App" rather than "Amazon Echo Skill"?

Read my response... I said "Hubitat skill".

Hubitat has two Echo apps for presenting devices to Alexa. The old one (Echo App) would pass through Hue devices. The new one (Echo Skill) explicitly does not (or did not).

I'm well aware of that and I'm using, for the third time, the "Hubitat skill".

Sorry, I was only considering the Hubitat side rather than the Alexa side; from that perspective both of the existing apps are "skills" and neither is called "Hubitat skill". :slight_smile:

In any case, at least for me (I just tested it again), the Echo Skill still doesn't pass through Hue devices. Alexa only sees my Hues via the Hue bridge, not from Hubitat.

When you select/enable Hubitat skills from Alexa, it will ask you to discover devices. And you will see Echo skills added into your HE Apps list automatically.

In my Echo devices list, only can show Hue bulbs, even no Hue groups...

In the Alexa app it is the hubitat skill. My echo setup shows my hue devices via the hub and via hubitat. Did you setup the hubitat side and choose what devices you want exposed to Echo?

Yeah, I just added a couple of Hue lights on the Hubitat side and re-ran device discovery on Alexa, and it didn't find anything new. It sees my non-Hue devices, just not the Hues.

That was specifically how the Hubitat devs wrote the Echo Skill initially; it would silently filter Hue devices out of the device list it presented to the Alexa side of the skill. As far as I was aware they hadn't changed that aspect of its behavior, but I hadn't checked in a couple weeks.

That's different than the Echo App, which would present Hue lights (along with everything else) to Alexa. I believe it works by emulating a Hue hub, so it doesn't even require a skill on the Alexa side.

My Hue devices have always showed up in Echo from the hue hub and also from the hubitat hub. I've been using the hubitat skill since the day it was released and it has always worked this way. It was even an issue for me at first because the devices had the same name on the hue hub as they do/did on the hubitat hub.

They were explicitly excluded in the beginning, which I (having just removed the direct Hue mapping from Alexa at the time) found particularly annoying.

At least for me, they still appear to be excluded.

Is there an Alexa command to "Push" a momentary switch? Specifically, I want to push a scene button (as opposed to turning it on).

Alexa doesn't recognize buttons.
Create a virtual switch and in its device details, set it to 1 second auto-off.

OR a command named "Activate" .?

Is there a reason that Alexa discovers Hubitat Scenes as Devices as opposed to Scenes? Pros and Cons of this methodology of presenting from Hubitat to Alexa?

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Anyone have an idea if I can restrict Alexa from accepting a command for "all lights".

I told her to turn on the "hall lights" and she turned on all lights, switches AND relays. I know I can rename my hall lights, but hall lights is the most appropriate name and I'd like to keep it if possible. Additionally I don't really ever want her to accept a command for lights and have her apply it to switches and relays since they aren't necessarily lights.

Edit - just realized she also closed my water main valve (when I tried turn off all lights) since it has a switch capability.

Unfortunately, no. There's no way to restrict what Alexa hears as "All lights" beyond better voice training.

You can create 2 custom routines though that can trap "Alexa, turn on all lights" and "Alexa, turn off all lights" phrases. Then, just set whatever actions you want in those routines.

As for lights/switches, there is a "hidden" group called "All plugs and switches" that you can modify. The way to do this is to go into any switch and edit it. Click on "Type>Plug" and you should see a large button called "ALL PLUGS & SWITCHES". Click that and you should be presented a list of all the plugs and switches in your home. Uncheck any ones that you don't want to have switched on/off when Alexa does hear "Turn [on|off] all lights".

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Is there any plans to allow contact sensors to be seen by Alexa? That's about the only thing I still have to pass thru ST.

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