Many here know I’m heavily leaned toward Alexa and have been for years. The Echo Skill has a legacy issue that I feel can easily benefit from a change to the Amazon Echo Skill (the Skill).
At the time I first began using the skill, there was evolution happening in HE - device Labels and Names. As I dimly recall, there wasn’t an HE device label back then, just an HE device name. Old timers here can probably elaborate for historical detail but its not necessary here. When the Skill is used, the device Label is pumped into Alexa during discovery. At the same time the capability is pushed (love to debate why drivers don’t declare a primary capability - but I digress) and additionally the driver name is pushed.
THE WANT - In an Alexa device - the description should NOT want the device driver name, it should have the device NAME!
My argument is since in Alexa the Alexa Name prefills with the hubitat Label (and I totally disagree with this too) if you edit the name and call it something completely crazy, you lose the ability to see what the true device is on the HE side. EG; I share an HE device “labeled” Bedroom Third Reality Motion Sensor. Alexa discovers automagically and I have a new Alexa device “named” Bedroom Third Reality Motion Sensor'. Then in Alexa I rename it to ‘Human here’. Now, when I look at the Alexa device I can now longer remember what the connected HE device was/is and there is no way to know which HE device I’m referencing. Since Alexa doesn’t expose the Alexa device ID, it degrades over time as devices get renamed and I can no longer tell which ‘Human here’ device in different rooms I’m seeing.
I recognize legacy is a PITA. A change at this structural level MIGHT break stuff (I think this would NOT break anything). But that is my want - push the HE device NAME to the Alexa device Description - there is ZERO need for the driver associated - it’s unnecessary data on the Alexa side and an oversight / legacy from before there was a Label in HE.
But you can pick a capability, not in the driver, but in the Alexa app. Simply uncheck the things you don't want to send to Alexa...
Just hit the or next to the attribute you don't want to share. It would be atypical to want to share most of these extras like anyway, you are nearly always looking for one attribute like motion or a switch/dimmer.
In my example image below, I can just share the garage opener, and ignore the built-in light, built-in motion, or other cruft.
Thanks for responding @neonturbo . So I learn something today - I never looked at the ability to enable / disable specific capabilities (you called them attributes, which I think is incorrect). And as educational as that is, it is useless to me in general.
Lets say I have a motion/temp sensor. Unless I create a mirror device on my HE, I can’t separate the function at the Amazon side. Sure on the HE side I can whittle it down to a single capability to be sure that new device shows as EITHER a motion OR a temperature, but Amazon doesn’t allow me to use one device for both abilities. And thats on them BTW. 100%.
However. My topic is really about what ELSE HE is sending over at the time of the bridging. The device description is filled with the driver. If you have 15 Third Reality Motion sensors (as I do) then I get 15 things on the Amazon side that all say ‘Third Reality Motion Sensor (custom)’ which is the name of my driver. My want is to put the device NAME information there. When I connect a new device on my HE and send it into the Echo Skill - it gets picked up on the Alexa side - and the Alexa WRONGLY gets the HE device Label and uses that for the Alexa Name. As wrong as that is to me, I’ll pretend it’s okay for now. but Why send the Driver name? its 100% useless. At least fill the HE Name in there so I have some hope of finding the device if I botch the Alexa name field.
Anyways. Thank you for the info on the use of the Echo skill tweaks thing. As deep as I am in the Alexa side, I’ve never had a need to even go looking for that, so didn’t even notice it was there!
EDIT: LOL, and I see this has already alllll been covered in your feature request post….
Interesting how different assumptions/usages end up with different expectations and observed behaviors.
I was reading this and saying…why don’t I have the same issue?
I typically leave the name field in hubitat with the official information for WHAT something is (and both fields are pre-filled with the driver name I believe). And if I have multiple things I’ll normally put a piece of tape on the back with a letter code and add that to the name. But for the day to day name I use the label field to name something “_ door contact” or “_ room light” etc. Because WHAT something is doesn’t change (it’s name) but the label (nickname) can change as it gets moved around or put in a different role.
The hubitat UI is at least partially why I went this way:
“Tuya Zigbee Irrigation Valve” is the name.
”Irrigation Timer” is the label.
”Irrigation Timer” is what I would like to “speak” to an echo to take an action.
More examples of label (the blue text) vs name (the grey underneath)
We’re getting off topic (have gotten?) and thats a shame - thats how stuff in HE never gets addressed satisfactorily. We all chat about sidetrack issues - and no one ever looks back. Since the community is somehow supposed to vote on stuff (ha) it all just gets stymied.
This thread is not about labels / names in or on our HE hubs. It is about the Amazon Echo Skill HE provided App not working optimally. Pushing the driver name to Alexa is valueless. The skill would better serve users by pushing both name and label (regardless of order) to the amazon device manager in a smarter fashion.
Is the problem you’re trying to solve that information about a device is getting out of sync between Alexa and HE? On the Alexa side, the name field is user-editable but the description field is not, so you are looking to change the HE source for the Alexa description field so that you can use that to cross-reference your list of Alexa devices with your list of HE devices. Do I have this right?
Keep in mind however that both name and label are user-editable on the HE side, so the correspondance could still break, unless HE-side changes get synchronized back to Alexa, say, by re-discovering them through the Hubitat skill? I am not sure how this works, tbh.
EDIT: I ran a quick test and confirmed that:
HE-side device label changes don’t come across to Alexa’s device name if the device name was changed in Alexa i.e. renaming the device in Alexa is sticky
It’s currently the device driver name that populates the Alexa device description field
Changing the device driver and re-discovering devices does update the Alexa device description field for the linked device.
So I agree with you that the Alexa description field would be much more useful if it was set to something other than the device driver name. It could be set to either the HE device label or name (you asked for the name, I think the label would make sense, but not a big deal), allowing the user to customize the Alexa-side device name to be different from the description, if they want to.
It would help a lot if you could restate your feature request in two or three sentences (maybe four or five?).
I believe one of the primary reasons your feature requests “never get addressed satisfactorily” is that it’s often hard to understand what problem you’re describing and what you’re suggesting be done about it.
or 
next to the attribute you don't want to share. It would be atypical to want to share most of these extras like anyway, you are nearly always looking for one attribute like motion or a switch/dimmer.
