Amazon Alexa Grows Up

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For those looking to automate their homes, the Amazon Alexa platform took great strides this week with significant “Routine” enhancements.

While some were fired up by location-based triggers, I can’t say I’ve experienced consistent reliability over the years with geofencing. However, two new conditions make all the difference as I look to standardize on a single, efficient platform. “Wait” and new timers take Alexa from pretty trivial routines to complex macros… that I’ve already begun implementing. And Alexa voice control is actually an afterthought.

For example, when my backdoor Ring detects motion overnight, a series of Hue lights will turn on (to either assist us into the house or deter an unwelcome guest). Then, after 15 minutes, the lights will go dark.

The hubless hub isn’t quite there, as so many sensors and accessories have yet to be integrated (such as my Hue motion detectors), but we’re getting tantalizingly close – especially those in possession of a Zigbee-endowed Echo.

6 thoughts on “Amazon Alexa Grows Up”

  1. I wish they would add toggle actions for routines. I want to use the Alexa buttons to toggle a wemo in my sons room

  4. Yeah, Stringify and Yonomi have been useful as well – although I’m convinced that one of those two was turning on my Hue bulbs every Sunday at 11:30PM. Nuked them both and haven’t had a repeat. Also I wonder about Stringify’s future as a Comcast acquisition – they haven’t had a great track record keeping innovative startups independent and alive. Whereas, I assume Alexa is a safe horse to bet on at this point.

    Here’s my 2017 Stringify recipe basically doing the same thing as the Alexa routine I documented, but with a front door Arlo (that’s been decommissioned):

    https://twitter.com/davezatz/status/930925477262495744

  5. this is great! been looking for this type of action to set up hallway and bathroom lights to turn on/and off with motion in the middle of the night.

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