Amazon Echo Capability

[jnowland]

Please tell me that the A+ will soon be compatible with the Amazon Echo   If not, I think I am going to abandon my short and frustration filled relationship with my A+ and swith to something else, which is on the cutting edge and already compatible, such as the WINK hub.

[mparadis]

Please don't get a wink. It is horribly unreliable and there are plenty of rumors of its active demise. I played with several of them, all useless if you have no network, all mostly useless if you have network...

[JesseD]

I would love to know if it will be compatible.  Im thinking about getting one but this is holding me back!

[jnowland]

 I am very surprised to read your reply that the Wink Hub is on it's last leg.  Especially since Amazon recently opened up the Echo to be compatible with the Wink hub.  I purchased a Wink Hub the other day for $50, and already paired 2 GE Wink bulbs to it, which were connected to my A+ previously.  I have spent a lot of money of various devices with the promises the A+ was going to be the end-all, most amazing addition to home automation, much to the chagrin of my wife due mainly to the lack of a secondary controller option with the A.   I even recently convinced a friend to get an A+, which has turned in to a battle between him and his wife over the same issues of no secondary controller option.  The Wink Hub not only is compatible with the Echo, but it also allows secondary controllers.  I now can turn on and off those 2 lights simply by speaking.  I am very close to turning my A+ in to merely a secondary WiFi network in my home.  If Securifi doesn't do something very very soon, I am ready to make a world wide declaration to stand clear of the A+.

[JesseD]

I concur

[obmd1]

please don't start telling us about Wink being unreliable until the Almond + proves it's not. I'm currently deciding whether to use the almond + to be used as a stand under a Wink, a Vera, or a Smartthings hub

[jnowland]

Great reply obmd1!  At least my WINK is dependable and I LOVE telling my echo as I have my hands full with something to turn on the light.  The Echo responds so quick and communictaes with the Wink hub just as quick. 

[pete]

I have read too that the Wink is undependable.   I have not purchased one. 

An interesting recent snippet from Julie Jacobson of CE Pro...

Note that CE Pro is a trade magazine for professional installers and not really a DIY automation publication.

"Letter from the Editor

Wink, the home automation hub and platform that spun out of GE-backed Quirky, is facing some serious money issues. It turns out: making, selling and supporting a smart-home controller for the mass market is an expensive and otherwise tricky proposition.

Surprise!

We're not hearing such rosy pictures for Staples Connect and Lowe's Iris either. It's all getting way too complicated - from the messaging to the sales process to the implementation -- and we might have already run out of daring early adopters.

Is the Wink news bad for the professional integration business?

I think not.

Integrators know which products to install, how to sell them and how to create a positive user experience for the long term. If only we could get more of them to create a business model for high-volume installs!"

Another Julie quote from just a couple of days ago...

And this disconnect isn’t limited to service providers like the cable companies. Look at Staples Connect, Lowe’s Iris and Quirky’s Wink—none of which seem to be making their backers extremely happy.

While my customer-service experience with Wink a very long time ago was excellent (didn’t solve my issues but there was a lot of good effort), I wondered why in this day and age I had to describe every IP and Z-Wave device on the network, and how it was performing at that moment. And then I personally had to go around plugging, unplugging, pressing buttons, pressing and holding buttons, rebooting ... and describing every action along the way.

This is frustrating for the customer and terribly unprofitable for the provider.

I do see the Wink as an introduction to automation.  I do still automate my light switches here rather than my light bulbs; but that is me. 

Here playing with the Amazon Echo (Armzilla's Amazon Echo HA bridge) concurrent to my automation that has utilized MS SAPI now for about 15 years.  Works for me.  I was able to run a the Echo HA bridge on an RPi2 concurrent to automation software).   I did get the Amazon Echo a while ago and just stared at the monolith box for months before playing with it.

It is to me just another remote console to my automation with good voice recognition and a bit more.   

I am amazed how well the Amazon Echo is working. 

Here are some quickie videos of using the Amazon Echo with automation software. 

Today there are a couple of ways to integrate the device (that I know of).

1 - Java Amazon Echo Bridge
2 - Lambda function

[KP4]

@pete, amazing!!! Thanks for sharing.

We definitely need Amazon Echo integration.

[rldreams]

Please tell me that the A+ will soon be compatible with the Amazon Echo   If not, I think I am going to abandon my short and frustration filled relationship with my A+ and swith to something else, which is on the cutting edge and already compatible, such as the WINK hub.

If you think the Wink is cutting edge and reliable, I STRONGLY suggest you spend some time doing a little more research.  I have 1 Wink Hub and 2 Wink Links sitting in boxes in the basement.  I spent 6 months back and forth with Wink C/S  and in the end just gave up. I even had to send it back for upgrades and when I got the hub back it was just as bad or worse then before they "fixed" it.   A+ is 100 times more reliable than either of the Wink hubs even with all its quirks ( pun intended) .
 Regardless of what you issue is with any wink product the reply from them is always the same. It is not their hardware/software that is the issue. It is always your router, your modem, your phone/tablet , your building, etc.
 Try and get anybody from Wink to even admit they ever made the wink spotter.  What good it a multi-sensor that only updates, temp/light,motion every few days ? I really want a notification 7 days later that the cellar door blew ( was left) open , the temperature has dropped and my pipes are frozen.

[mparadis]

Had similar issues with Wink, I picked it up when it was first available, now have several sitting in boxes...

[rldreams]

Had similar issues with Wink, I picked it up when it was first available, now have several sitting in boxes...

Hey they are worth what I paid for them ( barely). Since they were free with the purchase of 2 light bulbs. I am just upset that I wasted money on 2 of the Wink Spotters to get one of the free hubs, so I have absolutely nothing but experience to show for that purchase.

[mparadis]

I also got wink spotters. Returned the whole bunch with the hub, bought the wink hub with the ge link bulbs the weekend they came out. Using them with the almond+ since then. Tried several times to use the wink hubs, at my place and my parents, way to spotty for me. regularly failed and couldn't reconnect. (I also got mine for $1)

[Ab]

The only reason I held on to my wink was becoz it was free with my 2 GE LINK bulbs ... (free should say a lot). With no interface to that you can communicate with your wink but for the IOS/Android app and that too ONLY via the cloud the WINK is a white elephant waiting to happen! It has already suffered several proverbial deaths and while its has a few good features on its UI that is about the only complement I can give WINK other than a quick and a bye!

What happens when wink shuts down as a company and its cloud therefore is no longer available, what then? I'd rather take the risk with the A+, open WRT etc. etc.

[rldreams]

I am surprised since Amazon is the only retailer of Almonds and actually handles the fulfillment for products ordered directly from Securifi that they were not at the top of the list for integration.

 Then again we can not even get A+ app from Amazon app store and the sideloaded one is not 100% compatible with Kindle's version of Android.  It has been mentioned several times in here and the answer has always been that Securifi has no intention of making the app compatible with Kindles.


 I am still thinking that some day I might try and see if I can possibly use the Wink Link Zigbee hubs ( got a few of those during the $19 for 2 bulbs deal)  just as a Zigbee relay/extender.  I have 1 bulb in the back of my basement that is hit or miss. So I have turn turn the lights on/off in the right order to actually get signal to it.