Ok, so now I’m getting older I forget what some devices are called and drives me mad. Is there a way to add multiple names to a device so that when you call it the wrong thing to Alexa it’ll still do what it needs. For instance I’ve got a device called garden speakers and I sometimes ask outdoor speakers to turn on. Any built in way to do this?
If you really have to, you could create a virtual switch called a different name to turn on the same thing and expose it to Alexa
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Create separate Alexa voice routines using the Alexa iOS/Android app to turn on/off the actual Hubitat Switch!
For example:
- Alexa, Turn On the Garden Speakers ==>. HE Garden Speakers {On}
- Alexa, Turn On the Outdoor Speakers ==>. HE Garden Speakers {On}
- Alexa, Turn On the Fricken Outdoor Speakers ==>. HE Garden Speakers {On}
- Alexa, Turn Off the Garden Speakers ==>. HE Garden Speakers {Off}
- Alexa, Turn Off the Outdoor Speakers ==>. HE Garden Speakers {Off}
- Alexa, Turn Off the Fricken Outdoor Speakers ==>. HE Garden Speakers {Off}
or for fun:
- Alexa, Let's Dance ==>. HE Garden Speakers {On}
- Alexa, I'm all done outside ==>. HE Garden Speakers {Off}
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Make a group called Outdoor speaker and include garden speaker.
hmm, I do this with bulbs, dimmers and switches... can you make groups out of speakers?
Not that I have ever forgotten any device names using this "Hubi-Thing" 
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You do not need to make a separate Alexa Routine for each variation of your spoken command in the Alexa app. This is important to note since you are limited to 200 Alexa Routines in the Alexa app. However, for each Alexa Routine, you can specify up to 7 different voice commands to trigger the Alexa Routine. For example, if you create an Alexa Routine that turns on your Garden Speakers, when you create the Routine in the Alexa app, you can give up to 7 different voice commands to trigger this routine. I do this to address the various ways I or my family forgets the exact wording of any given command, and to make “speaking” to Alexa more natural.
As I use Alexa extensively (you do need a separate Alexa Routine to turn on or off a virtual device linked to Hubitat via Hubitat’s Amazon Echo Skill app, i.e. one to turn it on and one to turn it off) which is how I quickly ran into and found out about the 200 Alexa Routine limit on the Alexa app. That is also when I found out that Alexa allows for up to 7 different voice commands for each Routine.
This saves you from having to create a separate Alexa Routine for every variation to want to use e.g. to turn on your device. If you want more than 7 different triggering voice commands, then you can create two different Alexa Routines (perhaps call them Garden Speaker ON1 and Garden Speaker ON2) giving you up to 14 different variations of voice commands to trigger your routine while only using up two Routine spots. Hope this helps.
BTW,
That is one of the best SNL skits of all time, LOL!
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Good point @moh, 200 is a lot of Alex routines, but good to know that one could essentially have 1,400 voice phrases using 200 routines. Wow!
I believe one must have at least TWO separate Alexa routines for a basic On/Off control. One routine for the ON and one routine for the OFF.
If one wants to get slightly advanced and have a HE virtual switch tied to a RM/Webcore routine and then have RM/WebCore toggle the physical switch. I do this one Alexa Routine with several voice recognition phrases for my whole home Sonos system so the same Alexa routine Plays & Pauses the Music, less for me to remember and teach the other household members!
If one wanted to use MakerAPI and open up an external URL to RM to toggle the switch, they can use this Amazon Skill - URL Routine Trigger to send a HTTP string.
Again, good clarification for the Many to One Voice Phrases for Alexa!
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As I mentioned in my post, you are absolutely correct (and that is how I quickly found out about the 200 routine limit, lol). I am at a point now (right at 200) where every time a want to add a routine to Alexa, I have to determine which existing routine is not used enough to justify its existence so I can delete it to make room for the new one!
On a side note (and sorry to the OP if this if off topic), this 200 limit on Alexa routines is also why I found the Echo Speaks app to be so useful. By running the routine logic on Hubitat, I did not have to use up one Alexa Routine for every Announcement that was spoken by Alexa (this quickly used up many of my Routine spots). So some reason, making the voice announcements through Echo Speaks did not use up available routine spots. Perhaps it goes through the API through a different “pathway” (I have no idea, not a coder nor computer guy). Unfortunately, with the changes to Heroku and the hassles it created for Echo Speaks users, due to the many complications of setting up a local server I have encountered to consistently and reliably run Echo Speaks (there are many threads on this and problems the community has run into) I have temporarily gone back to using one Alexa Routine for each announcement I want Alexa to announce (for e.g., which water leak sensor or security sensor went off etc.). This has again cut into my “allotment” of 200 Routines that Alexa imposes. Hopefully, I will have better success in the future getting Echo Speaks up and running again. Hopefully, support for Echo Speaks will also remain available and not be deprecated to make all the effort to get it running on a local container worthwhile. In the meantime (at least for me), it is back to Alexa Routines.
ah ok so create them all in alexa. shame the echo speaks isnt working well as it would be nice to handle it all in hubitat
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