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Errol Lepianka avatar image
Errol Lepianka asked

Greet within the Vicinity

Hello, I've been browsing the IFTTT channels looking for a way to force Alexa to greet me when I walk in the door. It's a fairly simple idea yet I personally have not found a way to do it. So I decided to look into writing my own and I'm requesting it here in case anyone has already done it or has ideas of how to do it. Either would be greatly helpful and time saving. I'm quite sad that I haven't found anything about Alexa being connected to the August Smart Door Locks yet either. My 2 ideas so far were: 1. Based on my iOS location services when I get to a certain location (i.e. my drive way or if the accuracy is better my door step) then send Alexa the ping to greet me. This could also distinguish between the iPhones so my wife may be greeted separately as well. 2. Simply, when my August Door Lock unlocks Alexa recognizes the action and in return greets me. That's about all I have right now. I'm trying to decide which language I may was to attempt this in but any other thoughts are appreciated. Again if this already exists, has already been requested, or I was just blind to it then please let me know. Thanks! ELepianka
alexa skills kit
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3 Answers

jjaquinta avatar image
jjaquinta answered
Are you sure you can get Alexa to spontaneously say something without the user first asking it? That seems to break the model they've established so far where Alexa only speaks when spoken to. I'm no expert at IFTTT, but I'd be surprised if there's a hook in there to use Alexa as a "that" rather than a "this".
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The Stig avatar image
The Stig answered
As of now Alexa cannot be triggered to do something via IFTTT. However, and this is just what I think so take it with a grain of salt - but I expect Amazon to add this functionality in the future.
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The Stig avatar image
The Stig answered
There isn't, or there currently isn't - it's possible Amazon may add this in the future. But yes, as of now, Alexa is limited to just using the "this" aspect of IFTTT
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