Turn off Echo Show display

1

Hello, is there any way to have home assistant turning off Echo Show displays?
I have 5 echo show around my house and I am quite annoyed by displays always on.

Thank you

2

Hi,
Yes you can.
You can use the media_player.play_media service and send to Alexa the voice command “turn off the screen”.

I made an automation to do that every five minutes, as long as the “do not disturb” switch is on.
This way, my alexa show will have the display on for at most 5 minutes, and then switch it off. If I turn off the DND switch, the automation will be stopped.

Hint: I needed to send two times the voice command in order to work, with a 2 second delay between sending the commands.

I hope this can help.

1 Like
3

Thank you very much for confirming that this can be done!
I tried calling media_player.play_media service and set content as “turn off the screen” and also my native language equivalent but I can’t have it working :frowning:
I also added the 2 second delay and resend the command with no luck.

Do you mind sharing your yaml code?

Thanks!!!

4

Solved! Thanks mate, this is what I had to do:

  - service: media_player.play_media
    data:
      media_content_type: custom
      media_content_id: play "spegni il display"

“spegni il display” is "turn off display in Italian :slight_smile:

1 Like
5

Yeap! that’s right. I’m glad you made it.

Anyway, this is my code:

alias: Sho apaga pantalla
description: ""
trigger:
  - platform: time_pattern
    minutes: /5
condition:
  - condition: device
    type: is_on
    device_id: 94570fd874d35619885077c67f70b8c6
    entity_id: switch.Sho_do_not_disturb_switch
    domain: switch
action:
  - service: media_player.play_media
    data:
      media_content_id: ‘Apaga la pantalla’
      media_content_type: custom
    target:
      device_id: 94570fd874d35619885077c67f70b8c6
  - delay:
      hours: 0
      minutes: 0
      seconds: 2
      milliseconds: 0
  - service: media_player.play_media
    data:
      media_content_id: ‘Apaga la pantalla’
      media_content_type: custom
    target:
      device_id: 94570fd874d35619885077c67f70b8c6
mode: single

Here the magic phrase is “Apaga la pantalla” :wink:

With the DND condition, I can control wether I want the display to remain on, directly from the echo show.

2 Likes
6

Hi, Out of interest is this something “out of the box” or did you have to install HACS or similar to work around it, as I’m interested in turning my Echo Show screen off also.

1 Like
7

Hi Adam,
You need to have the Alexa media player. You can install it manually, but I recommend to install it through HACS, it’s very straight forward and help you keep updated this and other integrations.

Once you have installed Alexa media player, you will be able to use the service media_player.play_media.

1 Like
8

Working fine, but there is a mode to activate the screen with automation?

9

I tried a lot of commands but no luck, Did you find a solution for it?

I have mine in the living room, I want an automation based on a miliwave sensor:

presence = screen on
no presence for 1 min: screen off

10

Hi, I have an Echo Spot (with a round screen). Turning off the display seems to work ok, but turning back on again just doesn’t seem to work. It has no effect.

This works:

service: media_player.play_media
target:
  entity_id: media_player.bedroom_echo_spot
data:
  media_content_type: custom
  media_content_id: "turn off the display"

This doesn’t

service: media_player.play_media
target:
  entity_id: media_player.bedroom_echo_spot
data:
  media_content_type: custom
  media_content_id: "turn on the display"

Tried all variations on the wording too, does nothing.

I don’t think this is a Home Assistant issue as it also doesn’t work if you create a Routine in the Alexa app either.

Anyone have this working?

Thanks.

1 Like
11

Same issue here, been trying to figure it out all evening.

12

Same issue here getting the screen to come back on, Anyone found a solution?

13

Okay Hear me out this is crazy but after months I think I’ve cracked it.

When you set a timer on the Alexa shows at about 37 seconds theres an internal process of such built into the device where by it wakes up the screen, so using the Alexa media player you can set a timer for 38 seconds, wait 1 second and cancel it this wakes up the screen and sends the Alexa to the home page once the timer is cancelled. The Alexa does announce that a timer has started and then been cancelled but hey i can always mute it and unmute it again I suppose.