+5 votes
by (1.1k points)
Is there any way to have Alexa report on the status of several different devices with one request? For example, "Alexa, is the house secure? " And and she responds that either all of the doors are locked, or lists each device and it's individual state.  
Is there any way to have Alexa report on the status of several different devices with one request?

3 Answers

+4 votes
by (1.5k points)
 
Best answer
I'm working on a piston in Webcore to do exactly that. Not very far yet, but you can see my approach below. What I haven't figured out yet is how I can trigger the piston from Alexa.  
by (920 points)
Virtual switch make an Alexa routine to turn on the virtual switch when you say something like "Is the House secure"
by (1.5k points)
@fassett Ahh, perfect. Thanks for the suggestion!  
+3 votes
by (900 points)
SimpleCommands has a home status feature
+4 votes
by (15.3k points)
Yes AskAlexa was built for this specific task (often confused with EchoSpeaks - built for complex interaction and custom messages) it does have a high bar to install but if you do you can build whatever voice reports you want.  
https://community.smartthings.com/t...46786
by (1.1k points)
@anatolia7046 I have Ask Alexa installed but I thought it was only for individual device reports, one at a time. How do you go about getting the status of multiple devices with one query?  
by (15.3k points)
Go into AskAlexa > Extensions > Voice Reports. Build the report you want and then name it. Be advised. You do have to do the whole JSON keyword dance thing again after you update it if you're updating your settings that way.  
by (1.1k points)
So the name of the report becomes a "virtual device" that you can ask for status of and it all report all devices within that report? I didn't did the manual install, I did it through the community installer. So I'm not sure how I would update JSON.  
by (15.3k points)
@romany377 basically, yes. - I believe the current instructions are here: .  
http://thingsthataresmart.wiki/inde...Alexa
by (1.1k points)
@anatolia7046 Thanks for the help!  
by (15.3k points)
@romany377 Yeah I remember going into the weeds BADLY with mine. Blinds and locks and doors mostly. Then I think I built one named portals and it did all of those things. Eventually over a year or so it whittled it down to "Alexa, ask SmartThings it we're ready to go to bed" and it runs/speaks that report. (Which has lately been superseded by the actual goodnight routine that just closes everything up. ) I'm a recovering dataholic - it's been 2 weeks since my last unnecessary voice report.  
The SmartThings Group is where you can always find questions, answers, advice, reviews & recommendations from other community members about home automation with the Samsung SmartThings hub.
...