Alexa commands !

After you enable a smart home skill in the Alexa app or in the Alexa Skills store and add your smart home device, you can say simple commands to control the smart home devices with Alexa.

Commands are given by Amazon API and the list is here: [url=https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201749260]Amazon.com Help

There are also some commands that work while not being publicly stated by Alexa but have been found by trial-and-error by various Alexa users.

ON Commands
Alexa, turn on
Alexa, start
Alexa, open
Alexa, boot up
Alexa, run

OFF Commands
Alexa, turn off
Alexa, stop
Alexa, stop running
Alexa, close
Alexa, shutdown
Alexa, shut

DIM Commands is a percentage or a number 1-10
Alexa, brighten to
Alexa, dim to
Alexa, raise to
Alexa, lower to
Alexa, set to
Alexa, turn up to
Alexa, turn down to

These might change from one Alexa firmware update to another, so try and see what works…

Hope this is useful.

1 Like

Would be really good if they added the command “Alexa RUN [SceneName]”.

It always feels strange telling it to TurnOn a scene where that does not make logical sense. For instance I have a scene which turns OFF all my living room lights. Telling it to Turn On Living Lights Off never feels right. But Run Living Lights Off makes more sense. I understand that the word Set is already used for dimmer levels etc, but I don’t think Run is taken. Always applies for scenes that do things other than On off, for instance outputting data or …

[quote=“adamhay, post:3, topic:197154”]Would be really good if they added the command “Alexa RUN [SceneName]”.

It always feels strange telling it to TurnOn a scene where that does not make logical sense. For instance I have a scene which turns OFF all my living room lights. Telling it to Turn On Living Lights Off never feels right. But Run Living Lights Off makes more sense. I understand that the word Set is already used for dimmer levels etc, but I don’t think Run is taken. Always applies for scenes that do things other than On off, for instance outputting data or …[/quote]

Here’s a work around that might be of interest.

I have a similar scene that’s triggered by turning off a virtual switch. Alexa friendly name for the virtual switch is “Living Room Lights” so the command is “Alexa, turn off living room lights”. The virtual switch is reset to “on” after the scene runs so it’s always ready to turn any lights off, regardless of which or how many in the room are on. I do it with PLEG, but it should be simple as a Vera scene as well.

Funny… We text to each other while sitting in the same room because we don’t want to speak. But yet we’ll talk to an electronic device to turn on a light.

People are funny creatures… ;D

Melsman

[quote=“adamhay, post:3, topic:197154”]Would be really good if they added the command “Alexa RUN [SceneName]”.

It always feels strange telling it to TurnOn a scene where that does not make logical sense. For instance I have a scene which turns OFF all my living room lights. Telling it to Turn On Living Lights Off never feels right. But Run Living Lights Off makes more sense. I understand that the word Set is already used for dimmer levels etc, but I don’t think Run is taken. Always applies for scenes that do things other than On off, for instance outputting data or …[/quote]

I had the same feeling. I made a group within Alexa and put all my living room lights in that group. You can then say: turn on / off “all living room lights” (my group name). Works perfect! :slight_smile:

Would be really nice if they would have added the code already to get status updates on all lighting. This would possibly bring the skill up-to-date with the Alexa application and get us one step closer to being able to control the Vera devices from within the Alexa application as well as setting up "Routines. Then you can set up routines without having to say “Turn On/Off” things to call Vera commands. :wink:

Like cranb, I used the “Group” method to turn off or on my exterior lights. By placing all of my exterior lights in a Alexa app smart home group named “exterior lights”, I can turn them on or off by using telling Alexa to turn on or turn off exterior lights.

Melsman

Hi, I created a virtual switch for my Lounge curtains as it didn’t sound right saying “Turn On Close Curtains” and “Turn On Open Curtains”
I Named the virtual switch Curtains, I’m now (very surprised to be) able to just say “Open Curtains” and “Close Curtains”

As it worked so well I decided to make some virtual switches for my 3 windows that I can open and close, but disappointingly I wasn’t able to say Open, Close I had to say Turn On, Turn Off. Can anyone explain what could be the difference between the two virtual switches, and what would I need to change to be able to say Open and Close? Thanks for any help.

[quote=“colhemm, post:9, topic:197154”]Hi, I created a virtual switch for my Lounge curtains as it didn’t sound right saying “Turn On Close Curtains” and “Turn On Open Curtains”
I Named the virtual switch Curtains, I’m now (very surprised to be) able to just say “Open Curtains” and “Close Curtains”

As it worked so well I decided to make some virtual switches for my 3 windows that I can open and close, but disappointingly I wasn’t able to say Open, Close I had to say Turn On, Turn Off. Can anyone explain what could be the difference between the two virtual switches, and what would I need to change to be able to say Open and Close? Thanks for any help.[/quote]

As a work around you could just go into the Alexa application and setup routines. One for opening and another for closing. However, this would be alot of routines in my opinion just to do the simplest of tasks. You wouldn’t need virtual switches for this approach.

I will soon have an Anki Vector that is supposed to integrate with Alexa - but I don’t own an Alexa… so… could Vector work directly with Vera or is a new plug-in needed using the Vector’s API?

I would love to be able to associate the Echo device with a room, perhaps if you have more than one as a lot of people do then you can just say to turn on the light and it does so for the room you are associated with. Same could go with TV or other manageable devices.