Estimated reading time: 8 minutes
The Alexa Media Player is a powerful extension for Home Assistantwhich allows you to fully integrate your Amazon Echo devices into your smart home. Not only can you control your devices by voice, but you can also use them for TTS announcements, automations and media playback. In this article, I'll show you how to get the most out of the Alexa Media Player. There are functions that you probably didn't know about yet.
For detailed instructions and an explanation of all configuration options, I recommend the YouTube video linked below. In this video, every single setting is explained in detail so that you receive comprehensive instructions for the exact setup. You can find any code from the video in this article so that you can use it directly without having to type it in.
What can the Alexa Media Player do?
The Alexa Media Player offers a variety of functions to flexibly integrate your Echo devices into Home Assistant. With this extension, you can play music on individual or multiple Alexa devices simultaneously, adjust volumes individually and even control playlists or radio stations via various music services such as Spotify, Amazon Music or TuneIn.
In addition, the Alexa Media Player allows you to send text-to-speech (TTS) messages, so you can get Alexa to play custom voice prompts - ideal for reminders, alerts or home automation. You can also create routines and automations that are controlled by Alexa so that, for example, lights and music are automatically activated when certain events occur.
It is also possible to retrieve notifications or start timer and alarm clock functions directly via Home Assistant. In short, the Alexa Media Player expands the possibilities of your Echo devices enormously and makes them an even more central part of your smart home.
What is Home Assistant?
Home Assistant is an open source platform for home automation that aims to connect and centrally control all devices in the home. It is designed to provide a unified user interface and simple, flexible control for a variety of smart home devices from different ecosystems. Here are some points in favor of Home Assistant:
- CompatibilityHome Assistant supports thousands of devices and services from various manufacturers, including lighting, air conditioning, heating, cameras, weather sensors, voice assistants and more.
- Local controlUnlike many commercial smart home platforms that rely on cloud services, Home Assistant runs locally on your network. This means increased privacy and reliability, as your smart home devices work even without an active internet connection.
- Automation and scenesOne of the main features of Home Assistant is the ability to create complex automations and scenarios. For example, you can have lights switch on automatically when it gets dark or turn on the heating when the temperature falls below a certain level.
- Simple user interfaceHome Assistant offers a user-friendly interface that makes it easy to monitor and control devices. This interface is fully customizable.
- Integration with voice assistantsHome Assistant can be integrated with voice assistants such as Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant to enable voice-controlled control of your smart home devices.
- Open source and community-drivenSince Home Assistant is open source, it is supported by an active community that is constantly developing new integrations and improving existing ones.
- Data protection and securityAs a locally running platform, Home Assistant has the advantage that the data remains within its own network. This protects privacy and increases security compared to cloud-based solutions.
In summary, Home Assistant is a powerful and flexible solution for those who want to design their own smart home and control their devices centrally, regardless of the manufacturer or ecosystem.
Installation of HACS and integration of Alexa Media Player in Home Assistant
Step 1: Installing HACS in Home Assistant
Home Assistant Community Store (HACS) is a custom add-on for Home Assistant that provides access to a variety of custom integrations and plugins developed by the community. How to install HACS:
- Check requirements: Make sure that your Home Assistant is ideally up to date.
- Download Execute script: Open a terminal for the Docker container version or the core version.
- Docker: Dial into the container with:
docker exec -it homeassistant bashor (similar) - Core: Switch to the user who is running Home Assistant
- Execute the following command for both variants:
wget -O - https://get.hacs.xyz | bash -
- Docker: Dial into the container with:
- Restarting the Home Assistant: After the files have been copied, restart Home Assistant.
- Integrate HACS into Home AssistantGo to "Configuration" > "Integrations" > "Add" in the Home Assistant interface and search for HACS. Add it and enter your GitHub token if prompted.
For the supervised version, please refer to the Documentation of HACS itself to read about the installation.
Step 2: Add Alexa Media Player integration via HACS
Once HACS is installed, you can simply add Alexa Media Player:
- Open HACS: Go to HACS in the Home Assistant interface.
- Search for integrationClick on "Integrations" and use the search function to search for "Alexa Media Player".
- Install Alexa Media PlayerFind Alexa Media Player in the list and click on "Install". This will add the integration to your Home Assistant.
- Restarting the Home Assistant: Start Home Assistant again to apply the changes.
- Configure Alexa Media PlayerAfter restarting, you can set up and customize Alexa Media Player via "Configuration" > "Integrations" in Home Assistant.
Conclusion
With these steps, you have successfully installed HACS in your Home Assistant and added Alexa Media Player integration. This powerful combination opens up a world of additional features and customizations that have been and are being developed by the Home Assistant community. More blog posts and videos on useful integrations to follow. If you don't want to miss out, subscribe to my YouTube channel!
Customize Alexa's language settings
Amazon offers various options for customizing Alexa's voice. With the help of SSML (Speech Synthesis Markup Language) you can control Alexa's voice playback in Home Assistant.
Using voice variations
With SSML, you can select different voices to make certain content more appealing:
service: notify.alexa_media
data:
target: "media_player.echo_dot"
message: "Hello, I'm Hans!"
data:
type: "tts"Adjust pitch and speaking speed
If you want Alexa to speak slower or faster, you can also adjust this with SSML:
service: notify.alexa_media
data:
target: "media_player.echo_dot"
message: "I'm speaking more slowly now."
data:
type: "tts"Insert pauses
Pauses can be set to produce more natural speech output:
service: notify.alexa_media
data:
target: "media_player.echo_dot"
message: "Hello! How are you today?"
data:
type: "tts"Emphasize for emphasis
You can emphasize important words or phrases more strongly:
service: notify.alexa_media
data:
target: "media_player.echo_dot"
message: "Attention! Here comes an important message."
data:
type: "tts"These customization options allow you to make Alexa sound more natural and versatile, especially in combination with automations in Home Assistant.
Script for Alexa voice output with volume control
alias: Message via Alexa
sequence:
- variables:
old_volume_living_room: >-
{{ state_attr('media_player.saschas_echo_dot_wohnzimmer',
'volume_level') | default(0.5, true) | float }}
old_volume_kuche: >-
{{ state_attr('media_player.saschas_echo_dot_kuche', 'volume_level')
| default(0.5, true) | float }}
old_volume_bedroom: >-
{{ state_attr('media_player.saschas_echo_show', 'volume_level') |
default(0.5, true) | float }}
old_volume_flur: >-
{{ state_attr('media_player.saschas_fire', 'volume_level') |
default(1.0, true) | float }}
- if:
- condition: template
value_template: "{{alert == 'true'}}"
then:
- repeat:
for_each: "{{target}}"
sequence:
- data:
volume_level: 1
target:
entity_id: "{{repeat.item}}"
action: media_player.volume_set
- data:
message: "{{message}}"
target: "{{target}}"
action: notify.alexa_media
- delay:
hours: 0
minutes: 0
seconds: 12
milliseconds: 0
enabled: true
- if:
- condition: template
value_template: "{{alert == 'true'}}"
then:
- repeat:
sequence:
- if:
- condition: template
value_template: "{{ 'living room' in repeat.item }}"
then:
- data:
volume_level: "{{old_volume_living_room}}"
target:
entity_id: "{{repeat.item}}"
action: media_player.volume_set
else:
- if:
- condition: template
value_template: "{{ 'kuche' in repeat.item }}"
then:
- data:
volume_level: "{{old_volume_kuche}}"
target:
entity_id: "{{repeat.item}}"
action: media_player.volume_set
else:
- if:
- condition: template
value_template: "{{ 'echo_show' in repeat.item }}"
then:
- data:
volume_level: "{{old_volume_bedroom}}"
target:
entity_id: "{{repeat.item}}"
action: media_player.volume_set
else:
- if:
- condition: template
value_template: "{{ 'saschas_fire' in repeat.item }}"
then:
- data:
volume_level: "{{old_volume_flur}}"
target:
entity_id: "{{repeat.item}}"
action: media_player.volume_set
for_each: "{{target}}"
mode: single
icon: mdi:speaker-messageAutomation function
- Saving the current volume of the devices
- Before the actual action, the current volume levels of the Alexa devices are saved:
media_player.saschas_echo_dot_living_roommedia_player.saschas_echo_dot_kuchemedia_player.saschas_echo_showmedia_player.saschas_fire
- If no volume is available, a default value (
default) is set (e.g. 0.5).
- Before the actual action, the current volume levels of the Alexa devices are saved:
- Increase the volume (if
alert == 'true')- If
alerton"true"is set for each target (target) set the volume to1.0set. - This ensures that the message can be heard loud and clear.
- If
- Sending the message via Alexa
- The message (
message) is sent to the specifiedtarget-devices bynotify.alexa_mediais called.
- The message (
- Wait for 12 seconds
- A pause of 12 seconds is inserted so that the message can be played.
- Reset the volume to the original value (if
alert == 'true')- After the message has been played, the volume for each device (
target) is reset to the saved value. - The logic checks the device name (
living room,kuche,echo_show,saschas_fire) and resets the volume accordingly.
- After the message has been played, the volume for each device (
Additional details
targetis a list of devices to which the message is sent.alertdecides whether the volume is temporarily set to1.0is set or not.- Mode
singlemeans that the automation cannot be executed multiple times at the same time.
Use cases
- If an important message needs to be announced aloud (
alert == true). - If only a normal voice output is to take place without changing the volume.
YouTube video implementation
Conclusion
The Alexa Media Player is a great extension for Home Assistant that allows you to make even better use of your Echo devices. Whether TTS announcements, music control or automations - the possibilities are almost unlimited.
If you would like to find out more about the functions, take a look at the official Documentation on GitHub on. Have fun automating! 🚀
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