A dumb question, how do you access parallelspeak? Is it only through RM or webCore?
I was using my own smartapp for some particular notifications. I would assume it is available in RM, but haven't looked.
EDIT: Looks like you can get to it using custom action in RM.
Thanks. Was hoping I could just select it in Actions app instead of selecting speak.
@jcomtraining, you can toggle the "Advanced" option and remove the 3rd parameter if it's optional.
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Currently actions does not use parallelSpeak for speak.
it gets into backwards compatibility. We likely should add a new command for this.
parallelSpeak has some restrictions to be aware of:
You want to send the commands in 'close time' (I think I posted about this above), and if you send multiple parallel speaks to the same device in close time, they can 'overwrite' or stomp on each other.
I have updated NOAA alerts app, to be able to use parallel speak if someone wants to see some groovy code for this.
When using webcore, or rule, and you are using parallel speak a lot, there is also a command noOp()
The use is:
-
3 devices a, b, c
a.parallelSpeak('hello')
b.parallelSpeak('hello')
c.parallelSpeak('hello')
a.noOp(). // this could have been any of the devices, it causes current command to flush
a.parallelSpeak('Tony')
b.parallelSpeak('Tony')
b.parallelSpeak('Tony')
Should cause all the devices to say hello together, then Tony together without 'stomping' on the previous message.
If you use noOp() too much, you can defeat parallelSpeak operation....
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Thanks! Didn't spot that.
What I did was a.parallelSpeak where a was more than one device. So a little confused on what you are saying.
that can be equivalent if writing in groovy.
a*.command() if a is a list is the same as a[0].command(), a[1].command()....
IIRC that message means that you haven't enabled the Guard function inside the Alexa mobile app.
Is it possible to use it with a fire tablet? In the device detection preferences I see an option for create devices for tablets, but my fire tablet doesn't show up. I can see it in devices in the alexa application.
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can you post the device type information ES shows for it? (not any of your security keys)
Playing Sounds
I'm sure folks have even more information, but here are some basics I have found:
Amazon has an extensive set of sounds available for Alexa.
[Alexa Skills Kit Sound Library | Alexa Skills Kit]
This can be played easily with the proper string into a speak() command
<audio src="soundbank://soundlibrary/sports/crowds/crowds_12"/>
can be sent to a speak command, to play the crowds_12 sound
Note: ES devices have a command playSoundByName(), that has a more limited set of sounds to choose from. You will have a larger set of sounds by using speak() commands with strings like above and should have access to the full Alexa library listed above.
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Is there a command to get the selected echo device (streaming music from Amazon) to go to the next song?
nextTrack() would be the one I’d try
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I've been using the text as a voice do some actions. For example shuffle mode, outside of the built in music services doesn't work right. So I created two commands:
- turn on shuffle mode
- turn off shuffle mode
I have done the same for playlists from my home nas:
- Ask Audio Station to play playlist 1990 to 94
What is great now is that I have a dashboard per echo to play music, I have a few more presets to work on but no more voice commands need to disturb my confernece calls.
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How do I get multiple Echo's to announce at the same time in webcore?
If the message is short
use parallelSpeak(message) on each device (close together in time)
after you issue the last device, issue noOp() once to any of the devices (does not need to be all of them)
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One of my echo dots is used in a basic dashboard implementation as just a music player tile. The tile does not update with the currently playing song, or the "status" that it is playing (pause button appears) or stopped (play button appears). I have only noticed this for about 2 weeks. Volume changes do seem to sync.
On the same dashboard is a tile for one of the other echo dots in the house, which updates fine. Trying to figure out how to troubleshoot (is there a device property I should look for), or resolve?
