It looks like Amazon is changing spoken commands yet again!

[ahwman]

Yesterday around 6:00 PM, I noticed that many spoken commands which were working fine for months, are no longer recognized. This is the third time I've had to reconfigure commands which were previously working. It's getting to the point where it's almost impossible to create contextual commands instead having to use off the wall words to accommodate the Echo.

Example 1: "Alexa, turn on PageUp" which is equivalent to arrow up on my TiVo, now turns up the Echo volume.

Example 2: "Alexa, turn on MenuRight" which is equivalent to arrow right on my TiVo, now causes Alexa to tell me which songs I've recently added??

As much as I love and rely on my Echo's, I've really grown tired of being held hostage to major changes made on the backend without any warning or explanation which quite literally renders my devices useless...

Anyone else seeing this?
Chuck

[Yoda_One]

Not really but I try to use non descriptive words to avoid words that may or may not become proprietary in the future.

[ScottinPollock]

I saw it often enough to write a skill to replace some of the default integrations. The advantage of a skill is that it has a template of what to listen for/match, and that makes it a lot more reliable.

[ahwman]

I saw it often enough to write a skill to replace some of the default integrations. The advantage of a skill is that it has a template of what to listen for/match, and that makes it a lot more reliable.

Unfortunately I lack the know how to write a skill, however it would be nice...

[ahwman]

Not really but I try to use non descriptive words to avoid words that may or may not become proprietary in the future.

I hear you, however it's difficult to remember which spoken command does what when it's nondescriptive and you're controlling a lot of devices around the house like myself.  I sure wish Amazon would offer us a new trigger word like the one used with IFTT which ignores everything after the word "Trigger".  Sadly, the latency when using the Maker channel is just too great to use for routine commands.  Waiting 30 seconds for my TV to change the channel just doesn't cut it as it's easier to just grab the remote...

[Yoda_One]

I agree.

[tetraecho]

I saw it often enough to write a skill to replace some of the default integrations. The advantage of a skill is that it has a template of what to listen for/match, and that makes it a lot more reliable.

Would you be able to share how you did this, please?

[ScottinPollock]

Would you be able to share how you did this, please?

It is all pretty well documented at developer.amazon.com. I used the Alexa Skills Kit to build the skill (interaction model). I then registered for a free Lambda AWS account which hosts the function I created to respond to the skill. In my case, the function endpoints to a SmartApp in SmartThings, but you can endpoint to any valid HTTPS service.

There are a number of examples at Amazon; have a look and if you get stuck on something you may want to have a look at the Alexa threads on the SmartThings Community (even if you don't use SmartThings). I get the feeling that most folks here are not that tech savvy.

[mikee123]

I am getting frustrated, voice commands which worked for weeks all of a sudden do not work any more. I have also posted about this in another section, seems we are not alone with these issues.

[Yoda_One]

I am not having any problems. I do unplug to cause a reboot once a week.

[DParker]

I am not having any problems.

Neither am I.

[vegasguy]

My echo has been running continuously for at least 3 months without any problems.


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