Hi All, I wanted to get some opinions on the setup I have with Alexa and understand how other people are doing it because Im not sure if I wanted to setup more HA automations and stuff, if my other option is a better one.
(Current and Option 1) I currently have most of my devices setup with their skills in Alexa and I have the HA skill setup as well and all of the entities that are on skills in Alexa not exposed.
(Option 2) Im thinking that I shouldnt have all of the skills in Alexa and I should have all of the devices exposed through HA so that I have one place to manage everything and its easier to create groups and additional automations on the HA side instead of the Alexa side.
Can anyone give me guidance on whether I should switch to option 2? I think since I use the HA app more for entities and only Alexa for specific voice commands that Option 2 is the better one in my use case.
I setup everything I was able (odd exception here or there) in HA and expose devices/entities to Alexa. This allows me to setup better automations using HA, and still control devices via voice in Alexa. I have several devices that are cloud dependent and have found HA to be far more stable than Alexa with regards to connectivity and response. HA and Alexa both definitely have their place in my home, but HA does the bulk of the grunt work.
This was what I was expecting, so I guess Ill redo my HA and Alexa setup for option 2, I figured that was the better way to do it especially since I have entities not usually avail in Alexa (my garage door for some reason) so I can expose them that way.