Is it possible to control the Home devices(bulbs etc) only through Android client app

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hariprasada asked Dec 7, '16

Is it possible to control the Home devices(bulbs etc) only through Android client app

Hi,

We have built an Android app integrating the AVS API's to connect through Alexa servers for sending audio request and receiving the response from Alexa which is perfectly working fine.

Now we would like to add more value to the app by adding more functionalities like controlling the Home appliances like Philips Hue/or any other Alexa supported home devices from our app.

Some clarifications or documentation we are looking which can gives us good start.

Other clarification we require is :

1. As we understand we can enable some already built skill through amazon alexa app to get this functionality.

2. Do we need Alexa Echo/Tap to initiate the discovery process or it can be done just by our android app?

3. Can we achieve this communication between device(Philips/any other alexa supported home device) and android app without writing any custom skill?

Basically we want our android app to communicate with home device through AVS API's and not through hardware like echo/tap.

Please help with this information.

alexa voice service alexa smart home

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Answer 1 · 2016-12-09T00:52:35Z

David@Amazon answered Dec 9, '16

This has some limited support. There are ASK skills available that can do some smart home control, but we do not support local discovery. That means we can communicate with the cloud services for some brands through skills, but devices that require local connectivity will not work.

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Answer 2 · 2016-12-10T11:06:20Z

hariprasada answered Dec 10, '16

Thanks David for the reply.

To be specific, i think philips hue bridge control many of the philips lights and its alexa enabled as far as i saw in their website.

Now in my amazon alexa app, if i enable the philips hue skill, it takes me to login for philips hue account where i login to the account. After that discovery starts and philips hue bridge doesnt get discovered for me at the moment. Is there anything i am missing.

But my question is suppose, philips hue bridge is dicovered, thereafter will I be able to control the lights through android alexa app which i built.

When u said we dont support local discovery, what exactly u mean? Because when the hue skill is enabled discovery should happen through that isn't it?

Thanks in advance for your help.

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