Alexa Skill not available for UK Amazon accounts?

[robw]

I have asked Amazon Uk about the Skills for Homeseer to se if I could get any more info, bit of a general reply really:

I've checked at our end, and I'm afraid, we don't have the Homeseer and API skills available in the UK, at this time. However, I can see that we've already submitted a request to the development team to make these skills available for our devices in the UK. As the device was launched recently, we are working constantly to ensure that our Alexa device is compatible with a variety set of skills.

I'm afraid, at this point, we are unable to provide a time frame as to when this feature is going to be available. I can certainly imagine this could be disappointing for you but, I can assure you that you are doing our best to make these skills available for our customers.

Is all this waiting starting to annoy anyone else? It's been what 10+ days now since you submitted it for certification?!?!?

Homeseer, do you not think it's time to apply some pressure to Amazon to get these published sooner rather than later rather than just waiting around for them to do it???

Just waiting isn't going to get all your UK customers up and running any time soon. Maybe a phone call or support ticket twice a day to Amazon may get them moving a bit if you press how urgent this is to you as a company.

[class]

I have asked Amazon Uk about the Skills for Homeseer to se if I could get any more info, bit of a general reply really:



Is all this waiting starting to annoy anyone else? It's been what 10+ days now since you submitted it for certification?!?!?

Homeseer, do you not think it's time to apply some pressure to Amazon to get these published sooner rather than later rather than just waiting around for them to do it???

Just waiting isn't going to get all your UK customers up and running any time soon. Maybe a phone call or support ticket twice a day to Amazon may get them moving a bit if you press how urgent this is to you as a company.

Yes this process is taking far too long, any pressure from Homeseer would be appreciated

[robw]

I have asked Amazon Uk about the Skills for Homeseer to se if I could get any more info, bit of a general reply really:

I've checked at our end, and I'm afraid, we don't have the Homeseer and API skills available in the UK, at this time. However, I can see that we've already submitted a request to the development team to make these skills available for our devices in the UK. As the device was launched recently, we are working constantly to ensure that our Alexa device is compatible with a variety set of skills.

I'm afraid, at this point, we are unable to provide a time frame as to when this feature is going to be available. I can certainly imagine this could be disappointing for you but, I can assure you that you are doing our best to make these skills available for our customers.

Is all this waiting starting to annoy anyone else? It's been what 10+ days now since you submitted it for certification?!?!?

Homeseer, do you not think it's time to apply some pressure to Amazon to get these published sooner rather than later rather than just waiting around for them to do it???

Just waiting isn't going to get all your UK customers up and running any time soon. Maybe a phone call or support ticket twice a day to Amazon may get them moving a bit if you press how urgent this is to you as a company.

[Gogs]

I am puzzled by this thread!

I was using Echo prior to it's release in th UK without a problem and the HST skill set, When amazon released Echo in the UK I received an email from Amazon to contaxt them regarding Echo. I phoned and a gentleman asked if as my alaxa was registered to the .com account would I like it transfered to the .uk account. I agreed and thanked him.

The account was transferred along with the HST skill set and has worked as perfectly as it does.

I have just opened the alexa app on my iphone and the two HST skill sets are available, checked by going into Echo via the web and both skill sets are there. Now whether I have managed to get some sort of cross over between Amazon UK ansd Us I don;t know, but, for I there is no peoblem. The only thing I did after changing from com to uk was to re-train her on my voice as she started to misinterpret commands.

[Croccy22]

I am puzzled by this thread!

I was using Echo prior to it's release in th UK without a problem and the HST skill set, When amazon released Echo in the UK I received an email from Amazon to contaxt them regarding Echo. I phoned and a gentleman asked if as my alaxa was registered to the .com account would I like it transfered to the .uk account. I agreed and thanked him.

The account was transferred along with the HST skill set and has worked as perfectly as it does.

I have just opened the alexa app on my iphone and the two HST skill sets are available, checked by going into Echo via the web and both skill sets are there. Now whether I have managed to get some sort of cross over between Amazon UK ansd Us I don;t know, but, for I there is no peoblem. The only thing I did after changing from com to uk was to re-train her on my voice as she started to misinterpret commands.

Have you tried Prime music on your echo? Reason I ask is it sounds like your echo is still registered against your US account. Voice training is not available on the UK echos either. Is she speaking in a British accent? When you launch the Alexa app do you see an advertisement about Amazon Music Unlimited?

[reggs11]

I unfortunately am still in the same boat with my Echo being registered to my US account.
I've spoken with Amazon several times and they have offered to transfer me over to the UK account, which apparently requires some server switchover procedures on their side.
They have confirmed that if they switch me over to UK then I'll end up loosing the 2 Homeseer Skills that are on my account.
I am therefore unable to use Prime Music or my Audible accounts as both are registered to my UK accounts.
Voice recognition seems to be patchy at best but I am not sure whether this is an US\UK accent thing or not. Both of my Echo's have the UK voice and UK time, date and location so HS not sorting this out yet is really frustrating.

I feel completely unloved

[mikee123]

I am somewhere between the US and UK... I still have the api, the skill is not working but I have my custom skill. I do not have the national rail skill any more, but location for weather etc is all set to the right address in the UK. I also have the UK voice, and still have voice training in the app. But since the attempts to switch from the US to UK, the accuracy of the voice recognition has decreased, and I also get the daily random rambling from her... that was all a lot better when I was purely in the US

[Croccy22]

I am somewhere between the US and UK... I still have the api, the skill is not working but I have my custom skill. I do not have the national rail skill any more, but location for weather etc is all set to the right address in the UK. I also have the UK voice, and still have voice training in the app. But since the attempts to switch from the US to UK, the accuracy of the voice recognition has decreased, and I also get the daily random rambling from her... that was all a lot better when I was purely in the US

Have you guys tried moving you amazon account to US. Unregistering your echo. Then moving your account back to UK including the migrate your Kindle library step. Then do a full reset on your echo and set it up again? I have been able to switch my echo back and forth using this method so it should work?

[jon00]

As a UK user, I am very happy just using the custom skill as published by Croccy22. I personally don't mind using an attention phrase which can be anything you like. Using this together with my helper script results in 99% accuracy of triggers (after analysing what Alexa actually hears when you speak) and that I can program what she speaks back.

[Jon798]

I second Jon00 here. I tried before I received my UK dot to get ahead using the Roger app and echosim.io. I also tried moving my account to the US and back, but in the end I am using the custom skill as per the tutorial and Jon00's script which makes it nigh-on exactly as I need/want it. Thanks to both for the tutorial and the script.

I have observed that using "the house" as an invocation didn't work that well. In the end the kids decided that the house's name should be Fred and that works much better.

Alexa/Amazon also seem to have a bias when talking about devices. If you say phrases with things like 'living room lights on", it's almost as though they are trying too hard to match to a smart home device. I often get "sorry there's no device called x in your account".

One other thing I tried was to have 2 custom skills with different invocations but with the same homeseer system endpoint. Upshot: you can only have one skill linked to your homeseer system at a time, it seems.

All in all pretty happy, hoping the recognition improves over time (although it's pretty good) and looking forward to the promised sonos integration...

Cheers,

Jon.

[reggs11]

Have you guys tried moving you amazon account to US. Unregistering your echo. Then moving your account back to UK including the migrate your Kindle library step. Then do a full reset on your echo and set it up again? I have been able to switch my echo back and forth using this method so it should work?

Ahh okay, as it seems like something I can do myself then I think I'll give it a shot.

[mikee123]

As a UK user, I am very happy just using the custom skill as published by Croccy22. I personally don't mind using an attention phrase which can be anything you like. Using this together with my helper script results in 99% accuracy of triggers (after analysing what Alexa actually hears when you speak) and that I can program what she speaks back.

I really like the helper app. For easy things like turn on lights, I use the api. Its just easier. If I want to get values from HS, I use the helper. It is very accurate. The only problem I have with the custom skill, I have set the phrase to 'the house', so Alexa, tell the house to...
That worked well but recently it has stopped. I can see in the Alexa app or the website, she hears 'tell the how's' so obviously that doesn't trigger and leads to wrong results. Havent worked out a way to get round that yet...

[jon00]

I really like the helper app. For easy things like turn on lights, I use the api. Its just easier. If I want to get values from HS, I use the helper. It is very accurate. The only problem I have with the custom skill, I have set the phrase to 'the house', so Alexa, tell the house to...
That worked well but recently it has stopped. I can see in the Alexa app or the website, she hears 'tell the how's' so obviously that doesn't trigger and leads to wrong results. Havent worked out a way to get round that yet...

It is easy to change the attention phrase and I like Jon798, had problems with 'the house'.

I'm happy to just say "Alexa, tell <attention phrase> Movie mode" and she set the lights etc accordingly.

Something else you can do is ask for Alexa for help.

"Alexa, ask <attention phrase> for living room help". Alexa responds with the attention phrases you can use.

[reggs11]

Have you guys tried moving you amazon account to US. Unregistering your echo. Then moving your account back to UK including the migrate your Kindle library step. Then do a full reset on your echo and set it up again? I have been able to switch my echo back and forth using this method so it should work?

I've followed the tutorial, setup the developer account and de-registered both of my Echo's but I seem to have hit a hurdle.

I can't get past step 8 'Setup your Echo' as when I try to go to alexa.amazon.co.uk I get redirected to a alexa.amazon.com, even after deleting cookies etc.
My login details to both of my American and UK Amazon accounts have the same login details. If I try to change one of the login email addresses both get changed irrespective of which account I try to change. Nightmare.

I've had both accounts for 16 years so don't fancy deleting either of them
I appear to be stuck.
Anyone have any suggestions ?

[Croccy22]

I've followed the tutorial, setup the developer account and de-registered both of my Echo's but I seem to have hit a hurdle.

I can't get past step 8 'Setup your Echo' as when I try to go to alexa.amazon.co.uk I get redirected to a alexa.amazon.com, even after deleting cookies etc.
My login details to both of my American and UK Amazon accounts have the same login details. If I try to change one of the login email addresses both get changed irrespective of which account I try to change. Nightmare.

I've had both accounts for 16 years so don't fancy deleting either of them
I appear to be stuck.
Anyone have any suggestions ?

Log into Amazon.com with your account. Then go to Your Account > Manage your content and devices > Settings and under country settings click the change button. Set this to your UK address and click update. Now log into Amazon.co.uk and go to Your Account > Manage your content and devices > Settings and click the link at the top that says "Learn mroe about updating your default Kindle store to amazon.co.uk". Click the Transfer button.

That should now set your Alaexa account to be in the UK. Try going to alexa.amazon.com and see if it still redirects you.

Matt.