Alexa Actionable Notifications not triggering without prompt

1

I followed the write up about Alexa Actionable Notifications. I created my skill and linked it to HA without issue. I have Alexa media player loaded and straight notify service will notify an Alexa device.

My issue came up when testing the Alexa Actionable Notifications in Developer tools. The service would show a success but nothing would play on the selected Alexa until I said “Alexa start custom actions”. What am I missing in order for her to ask me without needing to say “Alexa start custom actions”?

Here is the service call in developer tools.


service: script.activate_alexa_actionable_notification
data:
  text: Hello
  event_id: demo_1
  alexa_device: media_player.amazon_echo_dad_office_2
2

Did you also create the script that the service is calling?

3

Yes, part of the setup instructions is loading the script file which is used to generate this service call and allows for it to be selected at the menu of the automation or in the developer tools.

Here is the script from my script.yaml file.

  activate_alexa_actionable_notification:
    description: 'Activates an actionable notification on a specific echo device'
    fields:
      text:
        description: 'The text you would like alexa to speak.'
        example: 'What would you like the thermostat set to?'
      event_id:
        description: 'Correlation ID for event responses'
        example: 'ask_for_temperature'
      alexa_device: 
        description: 'Alexa device you want to trigger'
        example: 'media_player.bedroom_echo'
    sequence:
      - service: input_text.set_value
        data:
          entity_id: input_text.alexa_actionable_notification
          value: '{"text": "{{ text }}", "event": "{{ event_id }}"}'
      - service: media_player.play_media
        data:
          entity_id: "{{ alexa_device }}"
          media_content_type: skill
          media_content_id: amzn1amzn1.ask.skill.-f280c79e0f47

Here’s the script minus some characters from my skill ID.

4

Here is the video which links to the Github documentation that I followed.

At timestamp: 15:18 he tests the connection between HA and Alexa. Mine does this as well. It will run the actions when I say “Alexa, start custom actions” only.

At timestamp 17:20 he starts the test in Developer Tools and his runs as soon as he calls the service. Mine acts like it was successful but will not play on the Alexa device until I saw “Start custom actions”.

5

It’s going to be hard to know where the disconnect is.

have you tried setting the “DEBUG” line in the lamda_function.py file to true. I’ve never used it but it might give some insight into your issue.

Now that I think about it that might point me to where my issue is with needing delays between automations. :thinking:

6

@finity Here’s a demonstration of what I’m witnessing.

Here’s a screenrecording of what’ I’m witnessing. It fired correctly after I started the skill with my Echo.

Also, I might try this on an Echo Dot. I’ve been testing it on the Echo Show 15, it might be acting different for some reason.

Vidyard Recording?

7

I’m really not sure.

The only thing I see different between your script and mine is the amazon skill id is different.

mine looks like this:

media_content_id: amzn1.ask.skill.53b2e3bc-xxxxxx-xxxx-xxxxx-583xxxxxxxxxxx

But that skill id format might have changed since I installed mine. But it might be worth looking into.

also try turning on DEBUG and re-deploy the skill. It might give you some insight.

8

Yeah- I turned Debug on. Nothing major showed up. I checked the skill ID and it’s the right one. I’m going back through and rebuilding and then redeploying.

Do you use SSL on yours? I have mine set to false.

9

@finity

Which Skill template did you pick when building the skill? I’m thinking I may have selected the wrong model.

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10

the original instructions that I used had you pick the “hello world” skill template. But that skill doesn’t exist as a template as far as I can see even tho the wiki hasn’t been updated to reflect that.

in the video you posted he said to pick the “start from scratch” skill template which I think is under the “custom” model selection as you show above.

so “custom” and “alexa hosted (python)” then on the next page pick the “start from scratch” template.

11

When I didn’t see the “hello world” I might have selected “smart_home”. I’m starting over with a new skill and making sure I’m selecting custom. I’ll let you know if that changes anything. Any luck on your issue?

12

Reloaded Alexa Media Player, Rebuilt the skill. Rebooted twice and it finally worked!!! Thanks for helping me troubleshoot!

1 Like
13

Yay! :partying_face:

I got the time delay down to an acceptable level.

I still wish I could get it to be more “natural” tho. But it’s OK for my needs.