HS4 Feature Poll (Pick 5 features)

[Sgt. Shultz]

They weren't exactly keen on us parsing the commands instead of them, but in the early days they didn't have a smart home structure yet.

(They also weren't keen on my idea of using a digital radio station process to make unprompted announcements..., go figure.)

[mrceolla]

I don't give an F what they're keen on. That functionality is essential. I'll switch to Amazon if there is no longer a way to send the spoken text to HomeSeer. Dicks!

[jon00]

I'll switch to Amazon if there is no longer a way to send the spoken text to HomeSeer. Dicks!

Amazon don't allow this either now. It is fortunate that the HS Alexa Homeseer Home Automation skill which was written before the change and why other countries can't get this skill

[mrceolla]

OMG! Why would they eliminate such useful functionality? What is their reasoning? What is their angle?

I sure hope HST can bring this ability to Google speakers/displays with the Local Home SDK. Otherwise, Speaker.exe, here I come, again.

Or will Amazon allow the existing skills to function indefinitely? Something tells me no.

[Sgt. Shultz]

OMG! Why would they eliminate such useful functionality? What is their reasoning? What is their angle?

I sure hope HST can bring this ability to Google speakers/displays with the Local Home SDK. Otherwise, Speaker.exe, here I come, again.

Or will Amazon allow the existing skills to function indefinitely? Something tells me no.

As long as we don't try to resubmit the original skill or deactivate it, it's grandfathered in. They won't put in a new one, but they won't take out what's in there now.

The best part of that skill is no discovery is needed..., just put the new device in and allow voice and you're done.

The timers are also useful, as you can set up something to occur for a short time.

Like:

"tell homeseer to turn the light on for 2 hours"
"On monday at ten am unlock the garage side door for 1 hour"
"In thirty minutes, turn off the bedroom air conditioner"

[ksum]

I'm curious: Outside of local control, what is the use case for sending the spoken text to HomeSeer if using Google Assistant/Speakers/Display?

[mrceolla]

I'm curious: Outside of local control, what is the use case for sending the spoken text to HomeSeer if using Google Assistant/Speakers/Display?

In short, it allows you to accomplish anything you want, by saying anything you want, and getting the response you want. :-) Ultimate flexibility! You can simply utilize HomeSeer's built in speech processing or create your own commands and responses with Jon00 Homeseer/Echo Skill Helper for Homeseer 3 & Homeseer 4 - HomeSeer Message Board.

Google's Smart Home/Device support is far from perfect. They'll never be able to support everything. This type of functionality fills that gap and adds so much more.

[avpman]

Are you saying the chip in the current 700 stick can xmit LR? And that it might only be a code base and possible firmware upgrade to do so? This would be awesome.

Our current 700 series boards should work with it, and I don't believe the firmware needs to be updated, but if so, it can be updated.

We are looking into it. It is doable with our existing code base, but the node ID is now 16 bits vs 8 bits. This is a big code change so it will take some time. I cannot give a timeframe right now but will post something after we scope it out.

[randy]

If the boards are the updated version, it should be supported.

[avpman]

Great! Since the LR doesn't depend on mesh "neighbors" looking forward to more reliability.

If the boards are the updated version, it should be supported.

[mrceolla]

I've been in contact with Actions on Google developer support. I explained the utility of sending the entire spoken phrase through to the 3rd party for processing and asked what solutions they currently have that allows for this besides Conversational Actions. After some back and forth, they suggested this:

Fulfillment | Actions on Google Smart Home | Google Developers

This sort of looks like Conversational Actions within the Smart Home SDK. It uses a webhook to send info to a 3rd party fulfillment web service, and allows for a back and forth if more info is needed. The Local Home SDK is listed in the left side menu as well. I very much need to continue to use Jon00's HomeSeer/Echo Skill Helper, which can be hopefully renamed to Jon00's HomeSeer/Echo/Google Helper.

[macromark]

So...................

Based on the results of this poll, we set about to implement "Conditional Actions" and work is nearly complete on that. We'll be releasing that for testing very shortly (in approx 2 weeks). Click Here to check our progress

As promised, we're cycling back to this poll to pick the next feature to address. Before doing so, we're going to create another poll which includes the most popular entries on this poll, PLUS any new ones that may come to mind. For example, we didn't include "customizable dashboard" in this first poll. So, that will be added.

Question to the group: Are there any other feature requests that we may have missed? Let me know... and they just might make it to the next poll!