![]() In the end, though, my frustrations with Logitech and Alexa's voice-activated entertainment setup outweighed the charm of it all. I wanted it to be great - and for power users like those who've already become well-acquainted with the ins and outs of the Harmony app, it very well might be. Friends and colleagues of mine who've been using Harmony for years have raved about the Alexa skill, pointing out that even their Alexa-savvy kids can use it. I'm a fan of Logitech Harmony gear and of Alexa, and I had high hopes that an integration between the two would be a game-changer. That means that if you want to try a new friendly name for a voice command that isn't working well, you'll need to disable the entire Alexa skill and then re-enable it. ![]() This is where you'll encounter another problem with the integration: there's no way to edit those friendly names or add new ones after you first enable Logitech's Alexa skill. Station call signs and letter-heavy network names like "MSNBC" seem to be a real challenge for her, but it took me several tries to get her to understand seemingly simple channels like "Red Zone," too.įriendly names are an obvious solution here, but it takes some trial and error to find intuitive ways of naming your favorite channels that are easier for Alexa to understand. My voice commands worked for the most part, but Alexa seemed pickier than usual about my pronunciation. With my favorites set, I imported everything into the Alexa app and started testing it out. I have no idea how I was supposed to know that, and that's a problem, because those favorite channels are a huge part of the Alexa integration. You have to create a "Watch TV" activity the part where you pick your favorites comes about five or six screens into the process. It was only after stumbling through each nook and corner of the app that I finally figured out how to do it. I checked the app's settings for my cable box - no option for choosing favorites there, either. After the initial setup, the remote's touchscreen directed me to the app to pick those favorite channels out, but there isn't a dedicated section for picking favorites in the app. I just wanted to jump to my favorite channels using Alexa, but Logitech seems to go out of its way to make it difficult to pick your favorite channels in the first place. Though syncing up with Roku was relatively painless, getting in gear with my Dish cable service was a complete headache. It wasn't the only time the app frustrated me. Your activities and favorite channels will all appear as "devices" in the Alexa app. The fact that you can't just say "turn on Netflix" for your kick-ass, custom Netflix activity is a big limitation - and even more maddening when you realize that the only thing standing in your way is the very system you purchased to get the job done in the first place. The whole point is for this to be easy, natural, and impressive when you show it off at your next movie night. Ultimately, I settled on adding the word "watch" to all of my souped-up video streaming activities, as in "Alexa, turn on watch Netflix." That did the trick, but it's still too clunky for my tastes. The result is unnatural, and made me sound like a crazy person. ![]() ![]() To get it to work, I'd need to say "Net Flicks" with a long, hard pause in between the two words. I'd say "Alexa, turn on Net Flicks," but she'd still hear "Alexa turn on Netflix," which wasn't what I wanted. I tried to navigate around this by using phonetic alternatives like "Net Flicks," "Who Lou," and "H Bee Oh," but more often than not, this made it difficult for Alexa to recognize my command. That also means that after linking with Logitech, you'll need to tell Alexa to "discover new devices" in order to finish putting everything under her control. When you say "turn on HBO," that's exactly what Alexa thinks she's doing - turning on a device called HBO. She's already programmed to turn compatible devices like smart switches and smart bulbs on and off, and that's the programming that Logitech is tapping into to get her to start and stop your activities. Logitech is basically tricking Alexa into thinking that these activities and presets are actually devices. One other thing: there's a reason you have to say "turn on" with these commands. You can add as many as you like to make things nice and flexible. Now might be "Alexa, turn on HBO Now," but if you add the friendly name "HBO," then "Alexa, turn on HBO" will work, too. These are really just alternative wordings that you can tie to each action - the part that comes after "Alexa, turn on". You'll also be able to add what Logitech calls "friendly names" for each activity and preset.
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