Current state of this plugin (as of October 2019)

Disappointed that the 2021.1 upgrade will be delayed because of a reason that is not affecting the Alexa (as I understand it)

I don’t care if you are forced to more than 2 updates every year. I can live with a monthly upgrade if it will bring out the updates quicker.


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Will the 2021.1 upgrade allow us to use Alexa to make announcements - sure hope so since that is one of the major shortcomings of indigo - really no easy way to make house wide “reliable “ announcements without having whole house speakers, amp and hard wiring in place……..

But in any case, thanks for the update…

[jay (support)]

Will the 2021.1 upgrade allow us to use Alexa to make announcements

No - the Alexa Notifications API is (apparently) currently only available to Alexa for Hospitality partners (hotels, etc).

OK, thanks for the info - BTW, documentation mentions the ability to fire an action group but no details or examples in the doc on how to do it. Just FYI unless I just missed it…..

[jay (support)]

OK, thanks for the info - BTW, documentation mentions the ability to fire an action group but no details or examples in the doc on how to do it. Just FYI unless I just missed it…..

Well, crap. It was in the Alexa docs at one point - looks like I screwed up and it got deleted or reverted.

Damn, I really put a lot of effort into that part too...

[MODERATOR NOTE]: whew, found it in the editing history for that page. Check it out.

Thanks, only one thing is unclear after reading.

I get the sense that all of the words used to start an action group (examples - launch, make, perform, start, set etc) are all just starting the action group (in other words they are all equal to run)

My question is on the words arm and disarm - not clear on how these could be equivalent, unless it is some sort of toggled action group…

Anyway, can’t wait to check out 2021.1

[jay (support)]

I get the sense that all of the words used to start an action group are all just starting the action group

Correct.

My question is on the words arm and disarm - not clear on how these could be equivalent, unless it is some sort of toggled action group…

They are there to allow a more natural language flow to arm and disarm actions. The utterances (what Amazon calls the speech part that represents what's said after 'tell indigo' invocation) are hard coded in the Alexa skill definition, and they must be action words (verbs) before the 'slot' that represents the freeform field used to collect the action group name. You could of course say tell Indigo to set "alarm to armed", set being the verb, but that felt somewhat unwieldy as the only way. Adding arm and disarm as verbs allows the user to create a more natural feeling phrase.

These options are meant solely to allow for users to create natural sounding/feeling directives to Indigo. They are not meant to be logical stand ins for "run" or "execute". Designing voice interaction requires that you enable a wide range of speech patterns because humans don't use the same exact pattern to communicate the same idea.

I understand the intent but I guess what fundamentally bothers me is if saying

Alexa, tell Indigo to arm “the kitchen zone”

And

Alexa, tell Indigo to disarm “the kitchen zone”

Do exactly the same thing?

I know you are busy so no need to answer if what I said above is true….

[jay (support)]

Yep, you're right. After thinking about it more after I replied I finally got what you are saying. We've decided to just remove the disarm word. We figure it's useful, and given the fact that built-in garage doors and locks require a PIN to unlock, encouraging a disarm action without that protection is probably a bad idea in any event.

I have not yet integrated Alexa or Google Assistant into my system but am considering it. Do we still need to find a Gen 1 Alexa, or will the new system address other generations? And if you had to start now fresh, would you pick Alexa or GA?

Thanks!

[jay (support)]

I have not yet integrated Alexa or Google Assistant into my system but am considering it. Do we still need to find a Gen 1 Alexa, or will the new system address other generations?

The next release of Indigo will natively support Alexa, so there are no special requirements beyond having some Alexa-capable device (any Amazon Echo or any other device with Alexa integrated - my Ecobee Thermostat works as well).

And if you had to start now fresh, would you pick Alexa or GA?

@RogueProliator will have a Google Home plugin that will be available for use with the next release. I haven't used the Google products, but I expect that they work equally well, so it's really just which ecosystem you want to invest in.

And if you had to start now fresh, would you pick Alexa or GA?

I have both devices and my son uses both extensively (Google Home in our house and Alexa in his grandparents) and our experiences are about the same so I think it would probably be typical. I think the most important thing is what ecosystem you are in; but if both are options here are some notes:

• Google is flat out more accurate in determining what you are saying and what you are trying to say
• Google gives better answers to non-home-automation inquiries nearly every time
• Google can directly answer (versus a search result) more often than Alexa
• Google Home will have local (non-cloud) fulfillment in probably v2 of the plugin, Alexa does not currently support that
• Alexa has better integration with non-Google services; that is, Google wants to force you into using their other services for things such as shopping lists, notes, etc.
• Both have all of the important skills, I have not found any major manufacturer or product that I need that has one or the other; however, whenever I do see an ad and only one is support, typically it is Alexa that is supported
• Alexa seems to me to come out with features a bit faster, though I could be mistaken... but seems this way

If you use Android at all, I think the Google Home / Assistant makes far better sense, but that is the minority on this forum. For Apple-centric users I think the Google Home is a better device, BUT if you don't use the other Google services, you may be better off going the Alexa route. Neither one is so far ahead of the other in any particular aspect to where you can just definitively say "that's a better device".

Adam