Should Alexa devices appear in Home Assistant

Hi all,
Thanks to everyone that answers questions here. I have learned a ton just reading old threads.

I am just starting to learn HA. Running it on a Raspberry Pi 4. So, I’m still learning what is normal / expected. This is a very basic question and I’m almost afraid to ask it, but here goes…

I have set up the Amazon Alexa integration through the Home Assistant cloud (trial account.) I think it is set up correctly.

However, I do not see Amazon Alexa specific devices/switches (such as my Amazon Basics Smart Switches) in HA. Am I supposed to see those in HA?

Thanks all!

That’s correct, that integration is to allow you to use Alexa for voice control.

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You can see home assistant devices in alexa using this. If you want to see alexa devices inside home assistant, you need custom Alexa media player integration.

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Thanks! That was what I was afraid of. I’m afraid such integration is a bit beyond my skillset. :frowning:

Perhaps I should consider using a different type of smart switch / dimmer switch. Any recommendations?

I’ve never tried the Amazon smart switches, but presumably they are designed to be turned on and off with voice commands to Alexa?

If this is the case, you might be able to create a binary sensor for each one, which you could use to trigger routines in the Alexa app changing the state of the Amazon switches when an input_boolean is toggled.

I have a couple of templates along these lines which work well:

  - binary_sensor:
      - name: test
        device_class: door
        state: >
            {% if is_state('input_boolean.test', 'off') %}
              off
            {% elif is_state('input_boolean.test', 'on') %}
              on
            {% endif %}

device_class: door is important - as far as I know this is still the only device class Alexa recognises (they appear in the app as ‘open’ or ‘closed’).

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Custom integration should bring Alexa switches into home assistant (i have tested it once)

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