Actionable Notifications via Alexa Media Player

poudenes · April 3, 2021, 7:14am

Ok tried it again. With the TOKEN part and not Account Linking.
On the Alexa App on mobile she ask me if it worked. 3 times.

When I try it on both of my Alexa Echo’s I get the message:
Sorry I having trouble, please try it in a little while...

When I still create a automation then Alexa say:
Sorry I did not catch that... none

She say this 1 time. When I trigger automation again. there is nothing she say

Now when I try it again on my Alexa App she say:
Sorry I did not catch that... none

and everything is broken again

bigverm23 · April 5, 2021, 12:23pm

can anyone explain how I change Alexa’s response to MY response?

Alexa Ask: It’s getting hot in here, do you want to turn on A/C?
ResponseYes: yes
Alexa Ask: OK, to what temperature?
ResponseNumeric: 72
Alexa Says: OK, setting thermostat to 72 degrees now. (how do I get this response via Node Red?)

duceduc · April 14, 2021, 9:55am

This will be my third attempt. Maybe this is the issue, I have tried start from scratch and & Intro to Alexa conversations.

Which one do I select?
Guide says Choose the "Hello World Skill" template.

Update:
Third time is a charm. Finally got it working. Done with Setting up the custom Alexa Skill
On to Setting up your first Actionable Notification

keatontaylor · May 14, 2021, 4:49pm

Hey All!

I’ve been meaning to spend some time to look this over and make overall improvements to the initial setup process. I’d really like to simplify the tasks needed on the home assistant side, such as setting up input_text and script that can be confusing.

My thoughts on this currently are that users should take advantage of Alexa Media Player via a custom action to trigger the custom skill. I’ve set this up in my installation and it seems a bit more clear. The major issues are that there is a specific order of the text. Example below does not require the input_text or the script to function. However does require Alexa Media Player setup and installed.

Honestly I am not sure what approach is best. The method above places a hard dependency on Alexa Media Player which may not work in all regions. I’d really like the feedback to those using this as it would be nice to make improvements to streamline the experience.

mefistofelis · June 18, 2021, 11:02pm

Same here, the funny thing is that when i say the test command “Alexa open custom actions” then it just runs perfectly.

Did you manage to solve it?

Artekus · June 25, 2021, 8:30pm

The set-up wasn’t too bad. I setup the input_text by adding a helper and just put a entities card in love lace and copied in the text. I also added the script via the gui as well however that did cause problems since I was using node red, I had to locate the random script.######### it assigned to it to make it work. I appreciate the work you put into it! I’d be happy to test anything you come up with.

DaleC · July 13, 2021, 3:43pm

Hey. So I’ve spent the last couple of days trying to get this working and I’m pretty sure everything is configured correctly, but then I found this in the HA logs:

Sonos does not support a media type of “skill”

I’m using Sonos speakers with Alexa as the voice assistant on them, rather than an Amazon speaker. Not sure if it will be possible to make your original process work with Sonos? Otherwise if your newer alternative process is likely to work using the custom content type, then I’m happy to test it out if you can provide the details.

Thanks.

Edit, forgot to mention that I’m already using Alexa Media Player as well.

poudenes · July 14, 2021, 4:37pm

after few hours tried it again. Now 1 time Echo 1 is reacting good. Tried it with my other echo and then no response at all… Went back to echo 1 again and also no response anymore… grrrrrrr

I see some notification of login from Amazon (login successful)

    **IP Address:**   72.21.217.184
    **Username:**   <my username>
    **Country:**   United States
    
    **Region:**   Virginia
    **City:**   Ashburn
    **Login time:**   2021-07-14 16:39:20

poudenes · July 14, 2021, 5:39pm

Tried it again… worked for 1 moment with one of my 2 echo’s… Tried it on second one… not working. Tried it again on the first one, not working anymore…

Bl4cksus · September 16, 2021, 9:56pm

Edit: Misunderstood. This is exactly what I needed. Thank you !

rysm83 · October 10, 2021, 10:31am

I have been having the same issue ms are a few others in the post. I can seem to get this skill to work. I have redone the skill many times and making sure the code has been copied correctly in the repo. I watch a video on YouTube that was recently uploaded in July just to make sure I didn’t miss anything. Account linking is working and I’m able to get my home assistant page up to sine in. Then trying to launch the skill from either HA or in the test panel in Alexa dev page. I get a response there was an issue with your skills response. I was looking at the log in the Alexa dev page and seems to be something wrong with the json file but not sure what. This idea of a skill would be really awesome to have for a true smart/connected home. Something so simple is seaming very difficult to achieve. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

Bok · October 11, 2021, 2:35pm

I had that problem following a video to set up. Then I found this in Keaton’s setup guide which resolved it - “Please note that: Private/internal URLs will not work and make sure there are no trailing / after your URL.” *When copying the public URL to lambda_function.py file

Bok · October 11, 2021, 2:51pm

I’m only just starting with this and using a script that Mark Watt Tech linked in his YouTube instruction video and found everything is working easy enough. Maybe a blueprint could help with the automations but it’s not too bad as is imo. Thanks for sharing this, great job.

rysm83 · October 13, 2021, 10:08pm

This was the exact video I was referring to. The only think I can think of is that I’m in the US and in the video he’s used UK or UE. Did you use setting for the US or UK?

Bok · October 14, 2021, 1:30am

I’m from a land down under and entered Australia. It was the removing the trailing / after I copied my nabucassa url into the lambda function.py that got it to work. Keaton makes a clear point of needing to do this and it seems to be a common mistake following Marks tutorial. Mark and others have commented in the youtube vid that the region can make or break so check the URL and try another region is my best guess.

foXaCe · November 27, 2021, 5:21am

Hello
have you made progress on this point?

jolly · December 9, 2021, 8:17pm

Is it possible to send the notification to multiple alexa entities or only to one?

david1 · December 10, 2021, 3:12am

any chance this cuold work on siri?

finity · December 31, 2021, 12:02pm

I second this question.

Has anybody figured this out?

All the examples only show one device.

Vlad · December 31, 2021, 4:18pm

Create in groups.yaml:

Alexa_wholehouse:
  name: Alexa Group Whole House
  entities:
    - media_player.echo_dot_bedroom
    - media_player.echo_dot_living
    - media_player.echo_dot_office

Automation example: use group.alexa_wholehouse

  - alias: Office Window Open
    initial_state: 'on'
    trigger:
      - entity_id: sensor.office_window
        platform: state
        from: 'Closed'
        to: 'Open'
    action:
    - service: media_player.volume_set
      entity_id: group.alexa_wholehouse
      data:
        volume_level: '0.3'
    - delay: '00:00:01'
    - service: notify.alexa_media
      data:
        data:
          type: announce
        target: 
          - group.alexa_wholehouse
        message: 'Office Window has been Opened.'