How does the new `Alexa Device` integration differ from the existing `Alexa Media Player` integration

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1

A new Alexa Device integration was highlighted in HA 2025.6.1 but it is unclear what if anything it adds to the older Alexa Media Integration?

Is one better/worse than the other?
Do I need both?

2

good question… :grinning:

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I’m wondering the same. I had a quick shot at it earlier and the notification wasn’t playing on my echo. I’d personally like to use the inbuilt integration if possible so I can remove AMP but without showing timers it’s a no go for me. It’s only early days for the integration, lets give it time and see what comes next for it.

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4

Hey @chemelli, can you maybe chime in? :slight_smile:
I’m wondering the same.

5

The new core integration will replace the custom one in future, but it’s not feature complete yet.

In 2025.6.0 there are the “Speak” and “Announce” method.

There are already a few pending PRs for more features:

About timers/reminders/alarms, there is a discussion about which entity platform should be used to handle such info; Alexa Devices is not the only integration that needs such entities.
So I bet it will take some more time to get in.

Last but not least, I’ll start looking into HTTP" push service to add the real time media player info.

Once thare we should have everything to decommission the old custom component.

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Does this integration work with Echo Show devices?

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In the meantime, should/can we run both ?

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You can run both, but if you’re just doing TTS there’s no reason to use AMP. I’m in the process of swapping over myself and AMP is getting removed from my system completely even without the media player capabilities. Your HA startup time should drastically decrease as AMP is a major contributing factor to slow startup times.

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9

Thanks !!! I use AMP to instruct commands on Alexa devices to HA and also to broadcast messages from HA to Alexa devices.

10

Then drop AMP and swap to Amazon Devices. That’s all I used AMP for as well.

11

Thanks,one more question ( :pray: ).
I guess that I have swap entities in my automations ?

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You have to swap from whatever AMP used for TTS to the notify.send_message action using the notify entities. It will likely involve completely changing out your notification action in your automation.

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I just tried to swap one of my Alexa entities in an automation that sets the volume on that device. Unfortunately, the only option with the new Integration is to change status of Do Not Disturb. I’ll do some more research, but not sure that all options are available (yet).

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Came here looking for this, found the answer :slight_smile:

One key thing I use in AMP (aside from the TTS) is identification of the last called device - i.e. I ask Alexa something, obtain the last called device before pushing TTS to that last called device - is this something planned for the new integration?

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I hope that AMP will not be removed until all its functionalities are available in the new Integration.

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You aren’t looking at the correct entities…

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Gentlemen, if my question is off topic I apologize, but is this working:

      data:
        message: Play B.B.C. on Tunein
      target:
        entity_id: notify.custom_everywhere

I see no notify.custom_* entity.
Thank you

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that doesn’t seem like the right name, my everywhere is called notify.everwhere_anncounce or notify.everywhere_speak

19

Thank you.
This example is from the documentation, to get the echo to play a radio station.
That’s why it has the custo_ prefix

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That’s just an example entity_id, you have to use the entities your system provides.