Alexa and FLIC integration.
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Hi @rich, The videos made by Paul and Brian were supposed to be focused on the new HomeKit integration and the new Flic Universal features. They were only notified that aside from HomeKit and Flic Universal we also have Alexa on beta testing without getting access to the beta hence why they did not have any demo of the Alexa features on either of their videos.
As a former tech journalist I'm sure you're aware that information can sometimes get lost in translation and that we have no control of the exact content that they publish or how they name their videos.
With that said, the Alexa Routines action is set to be publicly released in this quarter, most probably in the next couple of weeks so hang in there
P.S. We will of course be more cautious with the information we share with youtubers in the future.
//Amir from the Flic Team
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I have to say that Flic's comments in this thread are HIGHLY disheartening. I used to be a tech journalist (with major pubs) and have seen pretty much everything from companies, and this is certainly one that deserves calling out. Flic CLEARLY decided to create a marketing stir by energizing two of the bigger automation gurus on youtube with very personalized packages clearly stating their work towards seamless, simple Alexa routine integration. The headlines of both videos either bare that out, or represent two very unlikely missteps from both channels.
It's clear that many, many people bought kits under the assumption that this functionality was just a hop, skip and maybe a jump away. I broke my own rule of never buying any product based on potential future functionality. Add to this that your products are not exactly in the impulse-buy realm.
To respond to those of us that jumped in to support you with vague comments like, "We're looking into it" and suggesting that it may not ever happen ("if it can work"?), is really concerning and reeks of a bait-and-switch campaign to simply get a bunch of us to jump in on the hopes that we'll end up loving the product as it is today and allowing you to clear a bunch of inventory. I hope that's wrong, but that's how it reads from your responses.
Did Paul and Brian's videos make it clear that this functionality is "not yet available"? Sure, but that ignores the much bigger messaging from both videos. Brian's video states, "Flic just BLEW UP the smart button market with this", and "INCREDIBLE NEW FEATURES". Forgive me, but those very much dwarf the, "it's not quite here yet" messaging. Plus, in the letter you sent to both it states quite directly, "we're launching some new and really exiting features". It doesn't say you're "looking into" those features or that , eh, maybe they'll show up... maybe they won't. Paul's video says, "A button for Alexa!! - This changes everything!". Does it? If your stance is, eh, maybe we can do something..... then does that really change anything? Your marketing department clearly initiated a campaign to energize them in this way -- and it worked.
Look, we understand that you don't want to make any promises you can't keep, but right now it feels like your marketing department is playing games that your developers aren't quite up to speed with yet and we've been cajoled into becoming first-adopters without our knowing it. If you didn't intend to mislead people then simply saying something like, "We're proactively working on providing this functionality as soon as possible as it is a huge feature request. At this time, however, it's still not ready and we can make no promises beyond that" would suffice. Instead the tone is, "How could you possibly be so stupid?"
Gee, thanks for that. I've spent nearly $200 and the first interaction I see from your company is that sort of tone? So noted.
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@Emil perfect, I feel comfortable ordering now! Looking forward to the using the current and future functionality!
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@philipjbenedicto no new hw is required
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@Emil Thank you for the response. Quick question though - When it's released, will it work with installed/current flic 2 hubs or will additional or replacement hardware be required?
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I have worked around this deficiency with Flic by using IFTTT and also the Mkzense IFTTT applet. What it lets you do is invoke an Alexa routine from IFTTT so you can setup an IFTTT applet of your own that when a Flic button is pressed it invokes an Alexa routine. Its very slow due to all the hops back and forth via IFTTT so Flic really needs to build their own Native Alexa skill -- but in the mean time it works.
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We understand the confusion and we are sorry for that. As stated before we hope to have this released but we are unable to promise anything at this early stage. We will reach out if we need more beta testers but good to know that you are interested.
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@Emil, sorry "looking into it" didn't sound as promising as the videos presented it. Is there any expectation or goal on the release date or an opportunity to be a beta tester?
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@dchauge Hi. Both videos give a sneak peak of some features we are working on. They clearly mention these features are "not yet available". Homekit which is being talked about has now officially been released though.
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@Emil said in Alexa and FLIC integration.:
We do not have an Alexa integration but we are looking into it. We can't make any promises as of now if it will work or when it could be released if it is working fine. We will announce on our website and in our newsletter when we have some news about it.
Really? Just got a Hub and 6 buttons anticipating that triggering alexa routines was right around the corner...
Please correct me if I've missed something in these two videos...
Automate Your Life
Paul Hibbert
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We do not have an Alexa integration but we are looking into it. We can't make any promises as of now if it will work or when it could be released if it is working fine. We will announce on our website and in our newsletter when we have some news about it.
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I also purchased Flic 2 thinking it would work with Alexa. What a waste of money. I bought the hub and 3 buttons and they are useless to me.
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@michael-2 No sorry ... this does not help in any way. Could you please explain how to set this all up?! Would be great since we are not all devs ´s. Thank you so much,
Daniel -
Here is a blog post on an easy way to get Flic buttons to trigger Alexa Routines without any custom coding: https://okko.eu/flic-button-to-alexa-routine-1560e3844457
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Hi
I had a similar issue, I wanted my flic buttons to trigger Alexa routines. I ended up setting up a linux VM with a we served and then use this script https://github.com/thorsten-gehrig/alexa-remote-controlOn the flic button I just use a get request with all the parameters in it.
Hope that helps!
