Advanced Voice Activation: Smart Home Step 6

[Part of a series for IT Resellers helping them make Smart Home devices and services part of their business]

There's no doubt voice activation transforms Smart Home. Being able to say what you want and it happens is so much easier than fiddling with your mobile. It's far simpler and quicker too.

My last blog "Voice Activation for IT SMEs" looked at how to use The Echo's built-in ‘Shopping List' to note your daily spares order. And how doing so takes away the need for scraps of paper and time spent making notes.

That's great. But things can be even better. If you'd like to know how, read on…

Not quite there

I'm biased: being able to say "Alexa, add a GeForce GTX 1050 Ti G1 to my Target basket" would be pretty damn useful no? And while reality means we have to settle for a bit less it's still way better than nothing.

As I set out in "Voice Activation for IT SMEs" asking Alexa to add the board to "my shopping list" is a great 2nd best. As is saying "Alexa, what's on my shopping list" when it's time to order.

But if you're like me, exciting as all this is, there's still a niggle. Because while Alexa will tell you what you've listed you've no record. Sure you can see your shopping list on the Amazon website. You can see it on the Echo app. But delete either before buying or making a note and you're stuck. You've nothing in your hands saying what you wanted.

Advanced Voice Activation

Well unsurprisingly this blog deals with the issue. It's the perfect fit for how my blog series is unfolding. This post will tell you how to go about getting copies of your shopping list. What's more I'm going to set out how with a simple, convenient way using voice activation. Voice activation that triggers all the action with no extra commands! How? It's easier than you may think – combine voice activation with a smart web service. Combine using the Echo with an IFTTT Applet. Intrigued? Read on and all will become clear.

Speak to me

Let's jump to the chase. Imagine the scene...

It's the end of the day – time to place your order for spares. As you pack away your last job you say "Alexa, what's on my shopping list?" Alexa starts playing back, listing all the things you want. As you walk towards your HP Wi-Fi printer listening you grab a pen. By the time you get there a copy of the list has printed. You pick it up, ticking off what's listed and jotting notes about some other stuff you want. A ping from your computer alerts you to a new email – it contains a copy of the list just printed.

All at once you have everything you need. You've heard what's on your list and have both hard and soft copies too. And it was all triggered by one phrase - that's efficient, effective and highly productive. All you need do now is fill your basket and place the order.

How was it all done? 

The power of IFTTT is its simplicity. For every "If" there can only be one "That". It's not the end of the world, but it does mean doing what we want takes two Applets. One to print the list and one to send the email. While the detail's below the summary is here.

Each of the two Applets uses the same "If" service – choose ‘Amazon Alexa' in both cases and choose "ask what's on your shopping list" as the trigger.

From here each Applet differs...

For the print Applet choose ‘HP Print' as the action service. Then choose the ‘print Amazon shopping list' option.

For the email Applet choose ‘email' as the action service and confirm the subject and content of the message.

Once you've done all these you're ready to go. Yep, that's all it takes - it really is that easy.

I wouldn't start from here

You're now a pretty smart user of Smart Home devices. You know about their set-up and automation. You now know about voice activation. And you now know ways to use them in and for your business: creating alerts, improving security, counting footfall and passers-by, recording orders and completing admin.

The question is "where next?" Well, that's a good question - my next Smart Home destination happens to be about just that. The final step to Smart Home mastery uses location services or geo-fencing. These services create some interesting twists with Smart Home. So things happen based on where you are, not the buttons you press or words you say.

Interested to learn more? Join me for the next post.

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Create an IFTTT Applet to print your Echo shopping list

• Login to your IFTTT account and select ‘New Applet'
• Click ‘this' and choose the service ‘Amazon Alexa' (the first time you do this you'll need to login to your Amazon account to connect IFTTT with your Echo)
• Choose trigger ‘ask what's on your shopping list'
• Then click the ‘that' part of the Applet
• Choose the action service ‘HP print' (the first time you do this you'll need to login to your HP account to connect IFTTT with your printer)
• Choose action service ‘print Amazon shopping list with checkboxes'
• Turn the service ‘on'
• Click ‘create action' and then ‘finish'
• You've created an Applet that'll automatically print your Amazon shopping list when you ask, "Alexa, what's on my shopping list"

Create an IFTTT Applet to email your Echo shopping list

• Login to your IFTTT account and select ‘New Applet'
• Click ‘this' and choose the service ‘Amazon Alexa' (the first time you do this you'll need to login to your Amazon account to connect IFTTT with your Echo)
• Choose trigger ‘ask what's on your shopping list'
• Then click the ‘that' part of the Applet
• Choose the action service ‘email'
• Choose action ‘send me an email'
• Accept or amend the email ‘Subject' and ‘Body' texts as required
• Click ‘create action' and then ‘finish'
• You've created an Applet that'll automatically email your Amazon shopping list when you ask, "Alexa, what's on my shopping list"