I believe it would be a big improvement to change the Alexa Skill to use the HE device Name not Label when pushing to Alexa.
Alexa refers to devices with the assigned Alexa Name of the device. Hubitat pushes the Label when it sends to Alexa for discovery.
I feel this is wrong. In my hub, if I add a brand new device - the device gets a Label, and the name is sort of left in limbo (actually I think it prefills with reference to the driver that was used).
So My labels are really long and descriptive, but my Names are shortened for ease of use. (Honestly I think that is backwards but I get there would be zero support of changing this).
A recent change to the Amazon Echo Skill has added some rudimentary sorting - so I know it has got a teeny bit of Love in the last year or so.
My Ask - I would benefit by being offered a switch that says ‘Push Names or Labels’. (rename that to whatever of course)- Then when I do Alexa Discover - and I can cleanly associate my HE device NAME if i choose to the prefilled Alexa name creating a relationship that on humanizing would be more useful by miles.
Thank you for your consideration.
I would just use labels how they are designed to be used, as the given name for the device. What is your resistance to putting your long label info in the name field instead?
Labels are not supposed to be long and descriptive, it is supposed to just be a short name to label the device. Device name should be the name of the device itself, not the name you give it for that particular device instance.
Name: Linptech Presence Sensor (what type of device it is, often with driver name or brand name)
Label: Kitchen Presence (is specific to what it is used for in that driver device instance)
Simply put - why do you care what field you put your info in? You really want long labels to appear on dashboard tiles and apps?
Yes I agree, you have done this backwards. The Device Label is the nickname or easy to remember title of any device. It is what is used in dashboards and elsewhere anyplace you daily interact with a device. It specifically asks you to give the device a name to go by, not a description of every attribute of the device.
You are doing the equivalent of saying "John Smith, my college best friend who got a 2.5 gpa in biology senior year and he likes hamburgers and Pepsi" every time you are naming something instead of just saying "my friend John".
The Device Name automatically matches Device Type (driver) when you pair a device. Why would you change that? It gives you a reference as to what the device is, and what driver it initially paired with. I change it to match the driver if something pairs wrong or with Device driver, so I can know what to go back to.
If you want long-winded details and descriptions, why not use the Notes section?
Edit: forgot to add a screenshot of a new device I created. Notice the Device Name and how it matches the Type, and the Label is some nonsense I named it upon creation.
There is definitely a place for long Device Labels – I want the Devices page to sort by device category, location, and device manufacturer/designer code (e.g., TU = Tuya)
I would argue that you don't even need the suffix like TU, Tuya is in the grey line right below each name. You could modify the Generic sensor to have the Mfg. similar to the Tuya.
How does that TU affect Alexa and other things? Does she say "water found in the bathroom too (TU)
… does not show up in device lists when writing rules and several other contexts.
The new Alexa version sucks as to device name recognition no matter what I do. For example, I have a rule that turns off most house lights when we watch TV. When the rule was named “TV Lights”, Alexa seemed to randomly turn lights on or off, or just didn’t understand, because so many Inovelli switch/dimmer units (over 50) have the word “lights” in the label. So I renamed a virtual switch that triggers the rule as “Darkness”, as in “Alexa, turn the darkness ON” (to turn lights OFF). I only use Alexa for 5 or 6 things, and she fails a lot anyway.
I got out of the habit of using "lights" or "Fan" or similar in the device labels a Looooooong time ago. Google had problems with turning of the "XXXX Light" as it knew it was a light. So, it was like saying turn off the "XXXX Light Light" to Google. So, I just assign lights (or fans) to a room, and then tell Google (and Alexa) to turn off "{room} lights" and I have found that this way, Alexa is still about 200% more reliable at turning things off. If I only want to control one device, I use ITS specific label and Light.
For the record, Google pulls in the label too. But since Gemini.... uggh it can't find anything 50% of the time.
It is wholly possible (and I burning some cells on it - I believe I actually have) that I (me myself and I) have got my Names and Labels backwards.
I’ve only 197 devices to touch. It would fix the Alexa reference issue I have, and it explains why I’m always looking for tools like Hubitat Diagnostic to have a name AND a label column. Wild it only took me 3 (?) years to notice. I guess that speaks to the robustness of HE (and my stupidity).
That now said, and I feel I can explain how I (and undoubtedly others) got backwards. There is STILL a problem here!!! please look closely as I try to explain this:
I create a device. I call that device ‘My First Virtual Acceleration Sensor’. Look closely at the screen cap. It clearly says ‘Give your … a NAME’.
Now, if you give me the benefit of the doubt, when I first assembled THIS house 2 years ago I built from scratch - even tho this is my 3rd house in 5 years I’ve built out with HE. I started OFF wrong and never looked back. Regardless of whether you care how I could be so stupid - the fact remains, there is a clear issue here that we ALL should have seen before.
I hereby withdraw my feature request. I would like to change this to a fix request.
I agree that the terms "name" and "label" are poorly and inconsistently used. It has definitely confused me in the past (still does, but I've just learned to live with it). We commonly use "name" to identify people and places, not "label". The inclusion process says "name". So, the whole thing is confusing.
The system cannot be changed as it would break everything. However, I also agree that the inclusion screen could simply be changed to say "Give your ... a label:" and that would go a long way.
The whole area of Amazon Echo Skill is problematic for me. Personally, I think its just the prejudice as this was one of the first tools HE put out bridging to another party that I can recall. I once submitted a request outlining the Amazon Echo Skill app name being wrong. This app doesn’t have anything to do with Echo’s, its a bridge to the Alexa app.
The advanced section of the HE App would serve users better if the USER had the option to choose what was the field - Name to Name, or Label to Name.
I don’t really like to debate stuff - honestly I post my feature request, and step off. The community gets involved and I loose interest at that point.
I would debate if I were involved with the development of the HE, that Name is the correct field to use, both during the question and once the device is built. Label is the user optional thing to me, as others have just recently Strongly argued. After I got slapped around to their point of view - I swapped all my device names and labels. Anyways I don’t have any expectations. I put my thought out there, and let the wind take it wherever it wants.
