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    HomeSeer Amazon Echo Skill Approved!

    Our Amazon Echo Skill has finally been approved and is now available for your use. Instructions on getting started are now available at this link:
    http://www.homeseer.com/amazon-echo-integration.html
    💁‍♂️ Support & Customer Service 🙋‍♂️ Sales Questions 🛒 Shop HomeSeer Products

    #2
    Congratulations

    Congratulations and thank you!!!

    Rog

    Comment


      #3
      Is this why the 3rd party Echo integration threads were deleted? I thought HS didn't delete threads, or so I had been told. At least they should have been kept, but then the titles could have been updated to reflect they were threads about 3rd party integration, rather than HS native integration. I am not sure I buy that they were removed due to spam removals. Why would whole, long threads be deleted over handful of spam posts?

      Otherwise, great for HS.

      Also, it would be nice to be able to call Homeseer something custom, rather than calling it "Homeseer" during the verbal commands, in case someone has named their home automation something specific. Is that possible?

      Comment


        #4
        Originally posted by Automated View Post
        I am not sure I buy that they were removed due to spam removals. Why would whole, long threads be deleted over handful of spam posts?
        How exactly would we benefit by deleting that thread on purpose?
        💁‍♂️ Support & Customer Service 🙋‍♂️ Sales Questions 🛒 Shop HomeSeer Products

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          #5
          Originally posted by macromark View Post
          How exactly would we benefit by deleting that thread on purpose?
          Less potential confusion for typical consumer users when they go searching for support on the HS native solution. The timing just seems quite odd, that's all.

          Also, It sure would be good to get such good working voice support without having to go to the cloud. Many of us would sooner take all automation out before putting something like the Echo in. Any chance for non-cloud recognition to improve any time soon?

          Comment


            #6
            Originally posted by Automated View Post
            Also, It sure would be good to get such good working voice support without having to go to the cloud. Many of us would sooner take all automation out before putting something like the Echo in. Any chance for non-cloud recognition to improve any time soon?
            The trend appears to clearly be to the cloud to manage IoT and smart homes. To get to a home that really understands what we want and reacts to us, the power of the cloud is necessary -- at least for the foreseeable future. Google Now, Sirri, Echo, Cortana all need the power of the cloud based recognition engines.

            tenholde
            tenholde

            Comment


              #7
              Originally posted by tenholde View Post
              The trend appears to clearly be to the cloud to manage IoT and smart homes. To get to a home that really understands what we want and reacts to us, the power of the cloud is necessary -- at least for the foreseeable future. Google Now, Sirri, Echo, Cortana all need the power of the cloud based recognition engines.

              tenholde
              I am well aware of the trend. However, it only requires the "power of the cloud" more and more due to the architecture. There is no reason it could not be done without selling out our personal data more and more all the time. It is more efficient though, and companies get to harvest all our personal data for their own profit, not to mention the privacy concerns. It is absolutely possible without the cloud, but the large companies will never allow it at this point.

              Comment


                #8
                Now that the Skill solution is live, are you guys planning to turn some attention to the Alexa Lighting API so we can more directly control on/off/dim devices?

                Comment


                  #9
                  Originally posted by Automated View Post
                  I am well aware of the trend. However, it only requires the "power of the cloud" more and more due to the architecture. There is no reason it could not be done without selling out our personal data more and more all the time. It is more efficient though, and companies get to harvest all our personal data for their own profit, not to mention the privacy concerns. It is absolutely possible without the cloud, but the large companies will never allow it at this point.
                  Not being a conspiracy theorist, I am confident that if it was technically feasible today to do what Alexa does on a microcontroller, there would be multiple products in the marketplace today. We are no longer dependent upon 'large companies' for our innovation. That being said, we will see it soon.

                  But, that won't negate the importance of the cloud going forward in home automation. We are going to see more ways to stitch products and technologies together (such as IFTTT) as IoT takes off. My bet this will depend more and more on cloud based services.

                  tenholde
                  tenholde

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Nowhere near a conspiracy theorist here. I also work in the industry, so just stating fact. There is nothing conspiracy related to current business models as well as behavior of governments with people's rights.

                    Also, I never said it could be done on a microcontroller. It could be done on a computer. You are correct, online (cloud) connectivity will be a requirement more and more. It requires less work by a company, easier configuration for nontechnical users, and so on. This is what I meant by saying it is more efficient. You know all this though.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Thank you! I just setup my third Echo in my home and have been waiting for this to be approved.
                      I've enabled the Echo skill and linked the account. The instructions say to adjust your HomeSeer device names, floor names and room names to match those in the lists near the bottom of this page. If I adjust the device names and floor/room names, will I have to redo my events in Homeseer to match the new names?

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Yea! Excellent. Homeseer + Echo is a game changer.

                        Steve Q


                        Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk
                        HomeSeer Version: HS3 Pro Edition 3.0.0.368, Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 - Home, Number of Devices: 373, Number of Events: 666, Enabled Plug-Ins
                        2.0.83.0: BLRF, 2.0.10.0: BLUSBUIRT, 3.0.0.75: HSTouch Server, 3.0.0.58: mcsXap, 3.0.0.11: NetCAM, 3.0.0.36: X10, 3.0.1.25: Z-Wave,Alexa,HomeKit

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Originally posted by mtroxell1 View Post
                          Thank you! I just setup my third Echo in my home and have been waiting for this to be approved.
                          I've enabled the Echo skill and linked the account. The instructions say to adjust your HomeSeer device names, floor names and room names to match those in the lists near the bottom of this page. If I adjust the device names and floor/room names, will I have to redo my events in Homeseer to match the new names?
                          the events are linked to device reference ID's; not the names. So, you should be able to change the names without breaking your events. Try it!
                          💁‍♂️ Support & Customer Service 🙋‍♂️ Sales Questions 🛒 Shop HomeSeer Products

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Hey Mark,

                            I'm trying to use the Homeseer skill with my Alexa plugin which can replace the Echo device, but I'm having a hard time to make Alexa understands the homeseer commands I say.

                            From the history page on my alexa account, I can see that most of the time she understands "tell home seer...." instead of "tell homeseer...", sometimes she says there is a problem accessing the Homeseer skill, and sometimes she says she can't find the device I want to control. My typical test command is "Alexa, tell homeseer to turn the fan on" and of course I have a device named Fan.

                            The only one time that it did work is when I said
                            "start HomeSeer", then Alexa said the Homeseer skill was started and was listening for commands, then I said something like "run the test event" and the event was triggered. But even that, I can't reproduce it anymore.

                            I think one of the problem is my French accent (though I have a fairly good success rate with native commands or with other skills) so I would love if a native english speaker like you or someone else could try the skill using the Alexa plugin and let me know how it goes.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              I can be your beta tester Spud

                              I am buying your Alexa plug-in since my trial expired.
                              I have time tomorrow to then install the homeseer portion.

                              I will let you know tomorrow.
                              Thanks
                              Chris

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