Alexa integration

[John_Smith]

hello,
is there any progress in controlling roon devices (+tidal) via Alexa?

thanks

[John_V]

Roon does not support Alexa, and they do not pre-announce future features.

You might search this forum; there seemed to be some tinkering with Alexa. Best wishes, J

[Bill_Janssen (Wigwam wool socks now on asymmetrical isolation feet!)]

Alexa voice control

This project is in the back burner… It never worked well… Alexa seems to fail badly when music is playing, and the fact that Roon sounds like Room makes it even worse. We could release it, but it’d be a very poor product. Additionally, no one on our team would want to live with it, so it would slowly wither and just be a sore spot for Roon members who would expect a high quality product. The idea is great, but the implementation isn’t there… We will revisit with future software upd…

[John_Smith]

hi,
well i didnt meant to playback via alexa… but to control via voice - like pause/transfer zone etc

[Bill_Janssen (Wigwam wool socks now on asymmetrical isolation feet!)]

Yeah, you can do that with the Google Home, or the Mini. But that’s because Roon has done the Chromecast integration. I presume something similar would be required for Echo devices.

[John_Smith]

hi,
so it works with google devices… is there some description to it?

okay so for echo devices such an integration still doesnt exist?

[Bill_Janssen (Wigwam wool socks now on asymmetrical isolation feet!)]

That’s right. Description? No, it works just as any other music streaming works with Chromecast “smart speakers”. You can say “pause”, “resume”, “next” (if you’re playing a queue), “louder”, “softer”, “stop” and the device passes that on to Roon. Echo devices (Alexa devices) aren’t supported, nor Siri devices.

[John_Smith]

i meant where it is somehow described that roon can be controlled via google mini…?

i want to control playback on my roon devices via google mini …if possible … thanks

[John_Smith]

?is there any update?

[John_Smith]

anyone can comment?

[bbrip]

To get some basic Siri Support you can just access the Roon API and do some hacks in homebridge. Done that. works well.

Isn’t there something similar for Alexa?

[John_Smith]

@bbrip yes i heard that about Siri, but i am wondering if there is something similar / doable for Alexa also.

can anyone comment?

[bbrip]

sorry, no Alexa here. But I am sure it will be possible.

[Bill_Janssen (Wigwam wool socks now on asymmetrical isolation feet!)]

I don’t think it will ever happen. The Roon Labs folks tried it and got it working and didn’t like the results. So I think it’s in the bucket with UPnP and folder browsing.

I keep thinking about doing an integration with Google Voice (more as a way to try out the Google Voice API than for any other reason). I’ve posted a sketch of a workable design to the forum in the past.

But the Roon API, which is what I’d have to use, is spotty and undocumented and seems to be missing a couple of crucial elements, all of which which keeps me from actually trying it. So someone who is less easily discouraged by an unknowable amount of cut-and-try work might try an extension which works as an Alexa skill. Keep your eyes on the Tinkering category.

[John_Smith]

i though that roon api communicates with homebridge and then doesnt matter what controls homebridge if alexa/siri etc…

[Adam_Goodfellow]

Creating an Alexa skill to control basic functions is quite simple, but TBH unless it is a primary or at least a context skill, then its a bit of a mouthful to use and really isnt helped by Room and Roon being basically identical to Alexa when used as a noun out of context (such as in a phrase like ‘Living Room’).

Creating a music player control for Alexa that could search for track names etc would require that the entire library of music metadata that you could possibly request be uploaded weekly to amazon. Even then, if there are tracks that you have created you own metadata for, then quite likely they may end up inaccessible to alexa as it just isnt possibly to personalize these uploads when I last checked (a few years ago now to be fair when I was writing an Alexa skill for Roon and parked it - that was why Deep Harmony came to be - as that turned out to be an easier way to get at least some alexa voice control).

There was also the additional complication that when providing a music service (ie with voice search) then it MUST play back through an alexa device (echo etc), so Roon would probably have to become a full alexa device to comply and that would also go against Roon core being the stream source for local files. In effect, Roon would have to entirely become a cloud service with no local part.

I have not looked at the Alexa SDK recently and of course things may have improved.

[John_Smith]

Hello,
thanks for an explanation. Well maybe even simple control like play/stop/ pause might be useful, better then nothing

[Gracjan_Deresz]

I’d love to add my Alexa speakers as playback zones in roon.
Any predictions for the future?

[Brad_Burnside]

@John_Smith

is there any progress in controlling roon devices (+tidal) via Alexa?

Here’s what I recently did to implement Alexa voice control through Roon:

1. Purchase $80 WiiM Mini to output local files or streaming services, including Tidal, via Toslink. This cheap streamer can be integrated with Alexa, although it isn’t yet programmed to act directly as a Roon endpoint.
2. Purchase digital input HAT for Raspberry Pi to accept Toslink from WiiM.
3. Configure DietPi os on RPi for the excellent Audio Entrypoint Roon extension.

Now I can play sources, including Amazon HD, using voice control with the WiiM Home app to any Roon endpoint with all the features we know & love, including room correction.

[heap]

assuming there is no update on that ie to be able to control play/pause via alexa devices?