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Amazon's failure is not realising that Alexa's best use is an universal remote control. The interface with smart devices is good but clunky. While I can say "A

Amazon's failure is not realising that Alexa's best use is an universal remote control. The interface with smart devices is good but clunky. While I can say "Alexa open my curtains" and I can go to the slow and bloated Alexa app to open the curtains at a certain hour, I cannot say "Alexa open my curtains tomorrow at 6:45am". I would love an app that would allow better automation, like doing an action at a certain time and playing an alarm X minutes later. However, skills are voice-only and nearly useless.

atdaemon 2y ago
If 'Alexa, open my curtains' already works for you, then creating a routine containing the same command to be triggered daily at the needed time should solve your problem.
- mFixman 2y ago
  But I cannot create a routine or change its time with my voice. I can say "Alexa, set my alarm tomorrow at 7 in the morning". I wish I could say "Alexa, open my curtains at 6:45 in the morning tomorroe" instead of having to go to my cellphone and use the clunky Alexa app. It just seems like a wasted opportunity for a routine. I'm sure a lot more things would be available if Amazon let developers use more features.
  - cess11 2y ago
    Seems like it'd get unwieldy fast. Would need an efficient interface for listing and editing registered tasks, or you might get stuck with a couple of hundred tasks of the type 'Alexa, say fart fart fart at three/four/five in the morning' if a kid ever where to pass through the house.
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
    - itsoktocry 2y ago
      >Seems like it'd get unwieldy fast. We're not asking to construct a complex schedule via voice command, the app is sufficient for that. Sometimes you just want your curtains opened at 6:45 tomorrow because something is happening and you just thought of it. That's would actually be convenient.
      - deleted 2y ago
        [deleted]
  - stavros 2y ago
    This works for me. I just said "turn my office lights on at 6:45 pm" and it did just fine.
user_7832 2y ago
> I cannot say "Alexa open my curtains tomorrow at 6:45am" The "funny" thing is Google Home could do this (Turn on/off device after 8 hours) but recently they've removed the option & the assistant refuses. I assume it's for liability purposes, but it feels stupid.
- krisgenre 2y ago
  Don't know about opening curtains but I have a Deepbot connected to Google Home (now Gemini) and saying "Hey Google, start cleaning at 5.30 PM" works.
- Lutger 2y ago
  Maybe its my imagination, but Google Home could recognize a lot of things that it just can't do or can't do well anymore. It gives the impression that they just downgraded the whole infra behind it to run an inferior, cheaper model, hoping people will eventually stop using it so they can pull the plug altogether.
- criddell 2y ago
  If I asked me Echo to close my curtains, it would respond that it doesn’t know about a device with that name. If I then ask it what devices it does know about, it won’t give me an answer. Will the Google Home tell you the device names it can see?
  - user_7832 2y ago
    I don't think it can do that. Asking variations of "what devices/controls/lights can you see/access/control" just gives a google search result for it. Quite stupid flaw imo in the design.
Crosseye_Jack 2y ago
> I cannot say "Alexa open my curtains tomorrow at 6:45am". Works for me; however I often say the time before the action, so something like: “Alexa, at 8pm turn on the living room lights”, but “Turn the heating off in 15 minutes” also works for me. It then creates a timer to activate said device/group at the time requested. (Edit: I also use commands like "Alexa, turn on the lighthouse lamp until 11:30pm", which turns on that lamp and sets a timer to turn it off at 11:30pm) However all my devices are using the native smart home stuff in Alexa and they are exposed to Alexa via home assistant (So dunno if HA is doing some magic sauce to expose the devices in a certain way that allows such voice commands), So your mileage may (and indeed appears to) vary. Granted sometimes it mistakes my intentions and I need to repeat myself. I’ve also been able to create routines via voice, I first discovered that when Alexa suggested to me it could create the automation for me after it perform a request. Another Edit: When saying "At X do Y" Alexa can only do that action if its within the next 24 hours, guessing thats its timer limit. I also tested saying "Alexa, Every day at 6pm turn on living room lights" and it created a routine for that action, I was then able to disable that routine by saying "alexa delete the living room lights routine", however it just disabled it rather than deleting it like I had requested (and checking the transcript in the app it did pick up i said the word delete and not misheard me).
mmahemoff 2y ago
And it's not even possible to enable this with Alexa routines, which should work as a "hobbyist/enthusiast" version of skills development, but are in reality extremely limited. e.g. As a routine writer, you could include a command within a routine to turn on lights at 6am. However, it would be fixed at 6am whenever the routine runs, with no flexibility since there's no concept of variables or voice input available to routines. A more sophisticated platform would offer more flexible commands, i.e. "turn on lights at {voice_input}".

atdaemon 2y ago

If 'Alexa, open my curtains' already works for you, then creating a routine containing the same command to be triggered daily at the needed time should solve your problem.

mFixman 2y ago
But I cannot create a routine or change its time with my voice. I can say "Alexa, set my alarm tomorrow at 7 in the morning". I wish I could say "Alexa, open my curtains at 6:45 in the morning tomorroe" instead of having to go to my cellphone and use the clunky Alexa app. It just seems like a wasted opportunity for a routine. I'm sure a lot more things would be available if Amazon let developers use more features.
- cess11 2y ago
  Seems like it'd get unwieldy fast. Would need an efficient interface for listing and editing registered tasks, or you might get stuck with a couple of hundred tasks of the type 'Alexa, say fart fart fart at three/four/five in the morning' if a kid ever where to pass through the house.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - itsoktocry 2y ago
    >Seems like it'd get unwieldy fast. We're not asking to construct a complex schedule via voice command, the app is sufficient for that. Sometimes you just want your curtains opened at 6:45 tomorrow because something is happening and you just thought of it. That's would actually be convenient.
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
- stavros 2y ago
  This works for me. I just said "turn my office lights on at 6:45 pm" and it did just fine.

user_7832 2y ago

> I cannot say "Alexa open my curtains tomorrow at 6:45am" The "funny" thing is Google Home could do this (Turn on/off device after 8 hours) but recently they've removed the option & the assistant refuses. I assume it's for liability purposes, but it feels stupid.

krisgenre 2y ago
Don't know about opening curtains but I have a Deepbot connected to Google Home (now Gemini) and saying "Hey Google, start cleaning at 5.30 PM" works.
Lutger 2y ago
Maybe its my imagination, but Google Home could recognize a lot of things that it just can't do or can't do well anymore. It gives the impression that they just downgraded the whole infra behind it to run an inferior, cheaper model, hoping people will eventually stop using it so they can pull the plug altogether.
criddell 2y ago
If I asked me Echo to close my curtains, it would respond that it doesn’t know about a device with that name. If I then ask it what devices it does know about, it won’t give me an answer. Will the Google Home tell you the device names it can see?
- user_7832 2y ago
  I don't think it can do that. Asking variations of "what devices/controls/lights can you see/access/control" just gives a google search result for it. Quite stupid flaw imo in the design.

Crosseye_Jack 2y ago

> I cannot say "Alexa open my curtains tomorrow at 6:45am". Works for me; however I often say the time before the action, so something like: “Alexa, at 8pm turn on the living room lights”, but “Turn the heating off in 15 minutes” also works for me. It then creates a timer to activate said device/group at the time requested. (Edit: I also use commands like "Alexa, turn on the lighthouse lamp until 11:30pm", which turns on that lamp and sets a timer to turn it off at 11:30pm) However all my devices are using the native smart home stuff in Alexa and they are exposed to Alexa via home assistant (So dunno if HA is doing some magic sauce to expose the devices in a certain way that allows such voice commands), So your mileage may (and indeed appears to) vary. Granted sometimes it mistakes my intentions and I need to repeat myself. I’ve also been able to create routines via voice, I first discovered that when Alexa suggested to me it could create the automation for me after it perform a request. Another Edit: When saying "At X do Y" Alexa can only do that action if its within the next 24 hours, guessing thats its timer limit. I also tested saying "Alexa, Every day at 6pm turn on living room lights" and it created a routine for that action, I was then able to disable that routine by saying "alexa delete the living room lights routine", however it just disabled it rather than deleting it like I had requested (and checking the transcript in the app it did pick up i said the word delete and not misheard me).

mmahemoff 2y ago

And it's not even possible to enable this with Alexa routines, which should work as a "hobbyist/enthusiast" version of skills development, but are in reality extremely limited. e.g. As a routine writer, you could include a command within a routine to turn on lights at 6am. However, it would be fixed at 6am whenever the routine runs, with no flexibility since there's no concept of variables or voice input available to routines. A more sophisticated platform would offer more flexible commands, i.e. "turn on lights at {voice_input}".