Expand capabilities of Echo Skill

Feedback Feature Requests
1

Edited for clarity - HE currently allows temp, contact and motion to be shared to Alexa through the Amazon Echo Skill. More devices could easily be shared to Alexa today as they support a much larger range of devices (see list below)

As my HE hub has gotten stronger, my integration throughout my home has become more intertwined. The oddly named ‘Echo Skill’ could use a lot of love. Currently there is no easy way to see the drop down list we used to see, it’s all broken into categories - but I digress.

In the Summer of 2025, and in Early 2026, Amazon expanded sensor support for 3rd Parties. The current list of supported capabilities is really good, but HE has the bridge in place that seems to date back prior to 2025. The new list of supported devices includes Vibration, Leak Detectors, Humidity and soooo many more. But my HE can’t give me what I’d like - a way to bridge back and forth. In many ways I’m being forced to move to HA or some other platform just so I can get integration. I like my HE but it is coming up short more and more often in this area.
Here is the current list of Amazon supported sensors:

Expanded Sensor Capabilities

Sensor Category Specific Capabilities & Sensor Types
Environmental & Climate

• Temperature (Standalone, Thermostats, Cooking Probes)

• Humidity (Relative Humidity %)

• Ambient Light / Illuminance (Lux levels)

• Air Quality (Overall AQI index)

• Particulate Matter (PM2.5 / PM10)

• VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds)

Presence & Motion

• Standard PIR Motion

• Occupancy / mmWave Human Presence (Detects micro-movements/breathing)

• Ultrasound Presence (Built into newer Echo hardware)

Safety & Security

• Contact / Open-Close (Doors, Windows, Gates)

• Water Leak / Flood

• Smoke / Fire Alarms

• Carbon Monoxide (CO)

• Glass Break Sensors

• Freeze Sensors

System & Operational

• Button / Remote Switches (Single press, double press, long press)

• Battery Level (Reports state of charge for ecosystem endpoints)

2

That is a limit of the Amazon Echo APIs. They accept inbound states, like the states of Hubitat connected devices, but devices connected to Alexa are not exposed to third parties.

Echo Speaks, along with the voice command as text, lets you control any Alexa device from Hubitat if your automation builds a string to send to an Echo device saying what to do. Even that app gets the control it has by being tricky and using a web browser cookie to get access to features without using an API.

3

Thanks @chrisbvt - My desire is to use the hub as a main hub and share devices to Alexa. It works very well for the device types HE supports - but that limited support on the HE side is the weakness, not the amazon side. they are progressing slow but steady - and now allow more device types that I could be taking advantage of. That is the reason I submitted my feature request to HE. I’m not interested in Amazon sharing devices to HE - other than echo speaks which does a good job of allowing me to bridge into the voice side of things, theres very little value that direction. Alexa’s new hubs do have some really nice connectivity tho… regardless.

When I first came to HE years ago, it was one of the only real options - SmartThings was getting beat up and making things harder, and not much else really existed. As HE evolved, it used to be a ‘keep it local’ mantra - but we don’t see too many of those discussions anymore! Now with many bridges and hubs interconnecting, especially via thread over matter, the game is more about openness and robustness - and not falling behind. I submit my feedbacks and feature requests in hopes to keep HE strong - even knowing as I do how the community involvement is slowing the development and growth down. I honestly stopped posting for a long while and I have always hated the 'debating’ of stuff I put up. It’s like no one read the title.
But every time I post a feature request, no matter how politely, the debate takes over and the standstill always happens. I long for the days when techs and smart people debated on the technical merit, not the popularity. All I can say is ‘oh well’ at this point. I’ll continue to post what I feel is feedback, hope that someone of actual importance sees them, and the old guard of HE still at least discusses before tossing out the ideas.

4

That’s a pretty dismissive attitude to take towards everyone else here. I wonder if the Hubitat devs would agree with you.

Isn’t it possible some of your feature requests are unpopular because, in others’ opinions, they lack technical merit?

Even if there is technical merit to a given feature, Hubitat’s developer team is small and their time is valuable.

If a feature request appeals to a single user, with little or no evidence of interest from other users, then it’s reasonable for them to take that into consideration.

Perhaps this is part of the problem too? If you feel everyone (or most people) you interact with here is unimportant, I urge you to reconsider that position.

And who do you consider to be part of the “old guard?”

ETA: Another thought. Isn’t it possible others are simply seeking clarification on what your goals are when you make a feature request?

While it may be that from your perspective, every feature request you make is simple and easily understood, I can assure you that is not the case.

If your feature request is mixed in with a multi-paragraph editorial about semi-related issues (that are not actually part of the feature request) or a rehashing of your dismissive attitude towards actually discussing your feature requests, then that’s just confusing to other people (it is to me at least), and distracts from your actual feature request.

I pointed this out in another thread recently when I mentioned it might help if you could restate your request in no more than a few sentences. You didn’t reply.