Send Notifications to your Echo

[Randy Thompson]

You can now send notifications to you Amazon Echo via Tasker with the new Notify Me skill.

To do this, you must first enable the Notify Me skill, giving it permission to link to your Amazon account (so it knows your email address) and permission to send your Echo notifications.  (See www.notifymyecho.com for more info.)

Once you get your access code via email, follow these instructions:

1. In Tasker, go to Tasks and click the plus sign to create a new task.  Give your Task a name such as NotifyMyEcho and tap the check mark to accept.
2. Click the plus sign to add an Action, choose Net and then choose HTTP Post
3. Fill out the HTTP Post fields as follows:
   Server:Port:  https://api.notifymyecho.com
   Path:  v1/NotifyMe?accessCode=ACCESS_CODE
   Data/File:  {"notification": "Hello World!"}
   Content Type:  application/json
   
4. IMPORTANT;  You must replace the ACCESS_CODE part of the Path field above with the long access code Notify Me emailed you when you launched the skill.
5. You can, of course, replace the notification string from "Hello World" to anything you want, including a Tasker variable.  Just be sure to enclose the message in quotes.

To test out the new task, select it from the Task screen and then tap the play icon.

It's a bit of a process, I admit, but it works nicely.

Note that Notify Me uses official Alexa notifications as Amazon designed them.  As such, your Echo will not simply blurt out your message.  It first makes a bing sound and illuminates the device's light ring (so you know you have a notification waiting even if you weren't in the room when it arrived).  To get your notifications, you say, "Alexa, what are my notifications?"

I'm very curious to find out what practical, innovative, or even silly things people end up using this for.

Cheers,

-Randy

[Duck Redbeard]

First one I am going to do is have it notify me when certain device's battery drops to a predetermined level.

[Duck Redbeard]

Still waiting for the access code. How long did yours take?

[Randy Thompson]

Almost immediately.

Did you launch the skill ("Alexa, open Notify Me").  That's what triggers the email.

[Alexander Graetz]

Cool! Did you make this? I've got an idea for another skill: set an alarm on your phone with Alexa.

I've got a tasker made app at the store that reads the system's next alarm and simulates a sunrise with smartlights before this alarm. I get the request to support Alexa all the time but can't do it with tasker. A skill to just set a regular alarm on Android with Alexa would be very handy.

[Duck Redbeard]

Wow… This is going to be big.

I just tested this with {"notification": "%GPS"} I the Data/File and it returned the value of %GPS, which at the time is "off" on the device sending the notify.

I already have a few ways to monitor several devices' battery levels and display states. This can be a new way to monitor a device. If my daughter is on her tablet and should be doing homework, this can be used to notify Echo devices that she is on YouTube instead!

[Randy Thompson]

Nice! :-)  So glad you got it working.

[Randy Thompson]

I did develop this, for myself at first.  But, then I figured there were probably a bunch of nerds like me who might like to use it as well.

Your alarm idea is really good.  I'm going to have to think about that.

[Duck Redbeard]

The frustrating thing about this function is that we have two echo devices at a house in another state (in-laws).  They use them for streaming music, drop ins and Ring doorbell monitoring.  When I make and announcement or a notification, they get it too.  Wish there was a way to select or exclude specific echo devices.

[Randy Thompson]

Yeah, notifications sent to your account show up on any Echo device attached to that account.  Amazon currently doesn't provide a way around this.  You have to remove your Amazon account from you in-laws' Alexa devices, which means they might have to get their own Amazon accounts.

[Duck Redbeard]

Until then I can't fully exploit the (almost) endless possibilities that this opens up. I will still set up a few projects to develop ideas to share with others.

Thanks for making an already powerful app even better!