Alexa Media Player Custom Component for homeassistant

What This Is:

This is a custom component to allow control of Amazon Alexa devices in Homeassistant using the unofficial Alexa API. Please note this mimics the Alexa app but Amazon may cut off access at anytime.

What It Does:

Allows for control of Amazon Echo products as home assistant media devices with the following features:

• Play/Pause/Stop
• Next/Previous (Track)
• Volume
• Retrieval for displaying in home assistant of:
  • Song Title
  • Artists Name
  • Album Name
  • Album Image

Installation and Configuration

Please see the wiki.

Notable Additional Features

Play Music

We can basically do anything a Alexa Routine can do. You'll have to discover specifics, but here are some examples (and please help add them below!). To play music using the media_player.play_media service, you have to define the media_content_type appropriately. Search the forum for other examples.

Text-to-Speech

For version 1.2.0 and above, can be provided via the Notification Component using TTS or Announce.

The Media_Player UI will not work!

Online status of devices

Additional attribute to tell you if the Alexa device is online (extremely useful if you want to send a TTS after one has come back online (such as one in a vehicle)

Last called device (versions >= 0.10.0)

Each device will report whether it is the last_called or not. This allows us to identify the device that was called according to the Alexa Activities API.

Sequence commands (versions >= 1.0.0)

Alexa accepts certain pre-defined sequences and this is what provides TTS and play_media. This is now exposed through the media_player.play_media service when the media_content_type is set to sequence

Supported sequences (may be region specific):

• Alexa.Weather.Play
• Alexa.Traffic.Play
• Alexa.FlashBriefing.Play
• Alexa.GoodMorning.Play
• Alexa.GoodNight.Play
• Alexa.SingASong.Play
• Alexa.TellStory.Play
• Alexa.FunFact.Play
• Alexa.Joke.Play
• Alexa.Music.PlaySearchPhrase
• Alexa.Calendar.PlayTomorrow
• Alexa.Calendar.PlayToday
• Alexa.Calendar.PlayNext
• Alexa.CleanUp.Play
• Alexa.ImHome.Play

Automation routines (versions >= 1.0.0)

Running Alexa automation routines is now supported. Routines are tasks you can trigger through the Alexa App. Please create them using the Alexa app and ensure they are enabled. This is now exposed through the media_player.play_media service when the media_content_type is set to routine

Custom_updater (versions >= 1.1.0)

We now support custom_updater.

Add this to your configuration:

custom_updater:
  component_urls:
# Released build
    - https://raw.githubusercontent.com/keatontaylor/alexa_media_player/master/custom_components.json

Notification service (versions >= 1.2.0)

Please see Notification Component.

Further Documentation

Please see the wiki

Changelog

Use the commit history but we try to maintain this wiki.

License

Apache-2.0. By providing a contribution, you agree the contribution is licensed under Apache-2.0. This is required for Home Assistant contributions.