Why is Amazon Alexa / Hubitat integration so terrible?

Anyone else annoyed by the slow and inconsistent results when asking Alexa to control your Hubitat connected devices?

When I use Alexa with Hue, Ecobee, Logitech Harmony, Roku and previously with ST, the actions are quick and always work.

When asking Alexa to control my Hubitat connected devices the results are slow and inconsistent. Ask Alexa to turn on a light, the light turns and a few seconds later you get a confirmation OK. Other times the light turns on but you get "the device is unresponsive, and other times just nothing.

My hunch is it has something to do with Hubitat's cloud interface. Its great that we have local control with Hubitat but if our local control doesn't play well with the cloud than what's the advantage.

1 Like

My Hubitat Z-wave devices perform as well as any other on when controlled via Alexa. I find the Logitech Harmony to be the laggiest and most inconsistent performing of my devices controlled on Alexa. (I generally use the manufacturer Alexa skill to minimize number of hops across systems. So Hue, Lutron, Logitech devices are all connected via their native skills. The only time these devices are controlled through the Hubitat skill is via virtual devices.)

1 Like

Touch wood, but I don't seem to have an issue with Alexa control. She often turns on the wrong thing, but that's more a function of my stuttering than anything else :joy:

1 Like

I have a number of lighting groups that can be controlled by Alexa. We use these every day, both my wife and myself. They all have been solid for many months, and garnered a high WAF.

I too experience the delay of the "OK" after Alexa performs a lighting command. I accept this because I believe it is the following sequence:

Alexa -> Hub "Turn on outside lights"
Hub -> outside lights "turn on"
Outside Lights -> Hub " OK I'm ON" (received from each outside light as there are a number of them)
Hub -> Alexa "OK the outside lights are ON"

I would think this sequence taking only a couple of seconds is actually pretty good given the current state of the these communications.

Agree with the others here. No issue other than the occasional, as you mentioned, “Sorry, the device [device name], is not responding”, but then it does. However, that isn’t isolated to the Hubitat Skill. Other skills do it too at times. Since they’re all using Amazon Cloud Instances, it’s hard to blame anyone but Amazon for that.

Speed is fine though, and everything works.

Same here.

The Hubitat Skill for Alexa is a very solid performer for me as well. No issues whatsoever.

1 Like

Been solid for months here.
I just wish they'd hurry up with that TStat support.

3 Likes

I use Alexa to control some zigbee power plugs connected to HE. Rarely with virtual switch, just for TTS. It works fine and fast till now since few months.

Chiming in with a 99% reliable experience a well.

This might be because the Virtual Device is already set to On when you ask Alexa to turn it on or visa versa.

My issue may be related to the # of z-wave non-plus devices. There is definitely a significant difference when controlling z-wave non-plus devices.

Are like having a 5 year old phone. They kind of work, but suck enough to drive one crazy.

1 Like

I have a light, a lamp and a fan in most rooms, its anyones guess what Alexa will turn on. Sometimes its all of them, which always gets a laugh from the family....

Even though I have them grouped into rooms, I say "Alexa turn on the fan" and she will say "several things share the name fan, which one did you want?". I say "the fan" and she turns it on. Quite weird. Just hoping it will improve with time.

Yeah, I have that problem as well. "Alexa, turn off the Master Bedroom Fan Lights", "Multiple things share the name Master Bedroom Fan Lights. Which one did you want?" Um, the one that the freaking group is named! I actually have a group called "Master Bedroom Fan Lights".

sigh

Oddly enough, most of my light dimmers are not Z-Wave Plus. Still I have no issues with the Alexa integration.

Do you also have a device named Master Bedroom Fan?

(At least in the past..no longer use Echo) Alexa assumed the word "lights". If you have a device named "Den", then saying "Alexa, turn on the den" and saying "Alexa turn on the den lights" were essentially the same.

This "feature" was a real PITA when we were developing the Hampton Fan controller driver in ST. Because it had both the fan and light components, default names were problematic. Folks with Google Assistant had no issue, but those of us with echo devices had the same problem you described...ie...saying turn on Den Fan would sometimes turn on the Den Fan Lights or generate the "multiple device with the same name" retort from Alexa. I renamed the light portion of this controller to LAMPS to avoid this pain.

1 Like

Nope. I still haven't gotten around to making the fan smart. Just have smart bulbs in it for now.

I use Google Home and Have had 0 issues. When I ask Google to do something, It's instant.

I don't know why Amazon Alexa or Google Home don't support the concept of a "short name".

For example, you have an Echo called "Master Bedroom" which is located in a Group called "Master Bedroom".

You've added a bunch of devices to this room, Master Bedroom Ceiling Fan, Master Bedroom Fan Light, Master Bedroom Closet Light, Master Bedroom Table Lamp, Master Bedroom Floor Lamp, etc...

You can say turn on the Lights and the lights will all go on but what if you want to refer to individual item. Though you are speaking to the Master Bedroom Echo you must still refer to the device by its full name, eg "Alexa Turn on the Master Bedroom Closet Light". It wouldn't be hard for Amazon to dynamically remove the the need to say Master Bedroom when you're speaking to the Master Bedroom Echo provided the device you are referring to has a prefix of Master Bedroom. Alternatively they could allow for the user to add a "short name" to devices when they are associated with an Echo.