How to Turn On Your TV Using the Amazon Echo and Logitech Harmony Hub
If using a remote to turn on your TV is too old school for you, here's how to use the Amazon Echo and turn on your television using your voice with a little help from Logitech's Harmony Hub.
The Amazon Echo and the Logitech Harmony Hub do not officially support one another, so it's not quite as easy as simply linking your Harmony Hub to the Echo. But with a third-party service called IFTTT, you can create a "recipe" that will tell your Harmony Hub to turn on your TV if a specific Alexa phrase is said.
However, before you create the IFTTT recipe, you need to set up your Harmony Hub and create an "activity" that turns on your TV and any other home theater devices that also need turned on, like an audio receiver. If you're already using a Harmony Hub, you likely already have it all set up, but if not, we have a thorough guide that takes you through the process.
If you haven't used IFTTT before, check out our guide to getting started for info on how to create an account and connect apps. Then, come back here to get the necessary recipe.
For your convenience, we've created the recipe in its entirety and embedded it here, so all you have to do is just click the "Add" button below and fill out a couple of things. You'll also need to connect the Alexa channel and Harmony channel.
After you click the "Add" button, you'll be prompted to connect the two channels if they aren't already. After that, type in a custom phrase under "What phrase?". Remember, you'll have to say "Alexa, trigger [phrase]". So you can type in "turn on TV", which means you'll say "Alexa, trigger turn on TV". It's not the most natural way to say it, but you can make this whatever you want. (For example, "the TV on" would equal "Alexa, trigger the TV on", which sounds a bit better.)
Next, click on the drop-down menu under "Which Activity?" and select the activity that turns on your television.
After you're done with these two steps, simply click on the big blue "Add" button and the recipe will automatically be added to your list of enabled recipes. From there, you can begin using your Amazon Echo to turn on your TV.
To turn off your television, all you do is give your Amazon Echo the same command (since it merely just toggles the Harmony activity). Personally, I have it set up so that I just say "Alexa, trigger TV" and my television will turn on. Then, when I say that same phrase again, my TV turns off, but you can easily create two different recipes–one where you say "turn on TV" and the other "turn off TV".
Craig Lloyd is TIME Magazine's 2006 Person of the Year, as well as a mediocre gamer, aviation geek, baseball fan, and an introvert to the max. He began his career as a young, naive teenager tinkering around with the family computer and has since blossomed into the beautiful geek that he is today.
Source: www.howtogeek.com
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