Have Alexa Do Multiple Commands At Once

[dcel22]

Hello,

I'm a new member to this forum.  I was wondering if anyone could provide me advice on how to have Alexa control multiple things.  I ideally want to say something like "Alexa, trigger bedtime" and have her...

Turn off lights in the house
Turn on outside lights
set an alarm for the morning
Have this alarm use my philips hue bulbs to wake up at a certain time
set the nest to a particular temp
lock my august lock
play a playlist on spotify (maybe, I figure I want this functionality for a similar command for my morning routine though).


Any advice would be greatly appreciated.  If it were to involve programming I would be ok with that as well.

Thanks!

[kevb]

Can't do it at this time with only an Echo. You may be able to accomplish this with home automation, and then have Alexa start that routine. There are many threads on the forum regarding this.

[Snafs]

You mean like:

Wife.... Go into the kitchen and get my mobile phone for me, will you. Oh and while you are out there, bring in a beer from the fridge, and some of those Doritos we didn't finish last night

[Celeritas670]

Yes, Alexa with macros (essentially) would be nice.  And yes, much of this can be achieved with home automation. 

But even then, there are many times when I would like to send several commands, but not a standard repeatable set. 

What I would like to see is an option to have Alexa keep "listening" for one or two seconds after she says "OK" so that I don't have to repeat "Alexa" each time.  It would go like "Alexa, turn off the tv ... OK ... turn on the bedroom lights ... OK ... turn on the fan ... OK ... " etc.

A small savings in time, but well worth not having to treat Alexa like a small child with a 3 second attention span.   

[Snafs]

Genuinely the function I'm amazed does not work is the inability of the alarm function to trigger something else.

At 6:30am turn on the bedroom lamp and play bbc radio 2

That should be a pretty fundamental thing that almost every single Echo owner would like to be able to do.
I realise it means two things, "turn smart device on" and "turn radio on" linked to the alarm.

Even leaving the light switch out of the argument. I was genuinely shocked to find out it would not turn the radio on as a morning alarm function. Like any cheap Clock/Radio from the past few decades.

[DParker]

Genuinely the function I'm amazed does not work is the inability of the alarm function to trigger something else.

At 6:30am turn on the bedroom lamp and play bbc radio 2

That should be a pretty fundamental thing that almost every single Echo owner would like to be able to do.
I realise it means two things, "turn smart device on" and "turn radio on" linked to the alarm.

Even leaving the light switch out of the argument. I was genuinely shocked to find out it would not turn the radio on as a morning alarm function. Like any cheap Clock/Radio from the past few decades.

I agree that the ability to use a streaming audio source as your alarm sound would be nice and is a very reasonable expectation, but having events trigger other actions like device control puts you into true home automation territory, requiring rule engines and a semi-complex infractructure to support them (a user interface for defining them, etc).  Not undoable, of course...but beyond what the Echo and Alexa were designed to be.  That's why it works with existing HA solutions rather than seeking to replace their functionality.  Get a SmartThings hub for $50 and you can do that sort of thing (and much more) with ease.

[Kyle76]

The easiest solution to the alarm issue would be the ability to choose a streaming source as the alarm sound in the Alexa app.

[Snafs]

The easiest solution to the alarm issue would be the ability to choose a streaming source as the alarm sound in the Alexa app.

That would be one way, however I am a little against needing an app to set up a voice device.
However, as this is the type of thing you would set up then leave alone, it would be ok.

[msilman]

When I got the Echo (Dot) it replaced the Sonos in the kitchen though I needed a very good bluetooth speaker to get back to where I was before with sound quality (and unlike the Sonos, the concept of stereo in the kitchen just took a step backward).

I love the Echo but in response to the previous few posts, the Sonos is now in the bedroom and wakes me with my choice of (streamed) radio station without fail.

So when early next year, Echo support for the Sonos arrives I will have a really interesting quandary - do I improve my Sonos experience by adding an Echo or do I improve my Echo experience by adding a Sonos...